St. Augustine staff solicit public input on limits for yard fill, bulkheads and building techniques to reduce flooding

City of Saint Augustine planning staff convened a public workshop to gather resident and contractor feedback on proposals to regulate yard fill, bulkheads and building techniques in low-lying neighborhoods subject to repeated flooding.

"We are here to talk about resilience and building techniques," Amy Skinner, director of the Planning and Building Department, told attendees as the workshop opened. Staff said the effort grew from storm damage and recurring questions at Planning & Zoning Board hearings about developers bringing in large amounts of fill and changing drainage patterns.

Why it matters: City staff and residents said inconsistent permitting and rising post-storm rebuilding have increased local flooding risks and created neighborhood tensions. Staff cautioned that private bulkheads and filling can shift water onto neighboring lots; builders and homeowners argued limits could make properties uninsurable or impractical to use.

City and staff overview

Skinner said city data show a large portion of the city is low-lying and that most of the shoreline is in private ownership. Staff noted roughly 75% of the city shoreline is natural and that about 90% of the city lies in a FEMA flood zone. She also described recent storm surge heights cited at the meeting — roughly 6½ feet for Hurricanes Ian and Nicole and about 7½ feet in places during Hurricane Matthew — and said the city has been directed by the City Commission to work with Planning & Zoning to address fill and shoreline standards.

Ray Deshler, the city''s certified floodplain manager, summarized policy options drawn from FEMA and the Association of State Floodplain Managers: a strict option prohibiting fill in special flood hazard areas; banning slab-on-grade or backfilled stem-wall foundations in flood zones; requiring more freeboard (for example, 2 feet above BFE); or adopting middle-ground limits such as allowing fill up to a measured height or to the base flood elevation if the applicant supplies an engineer''s certification of "no adverse impact." Deshler said the city participates in FEMA''s Community Rating System (CRS) and noted past local efforts that raised the community''s CRS score (currently discussed in meeting comments as a class 5, yielding a 25% discount for flood insurance as explained by staff).

Public comments and tradeoffs

Contractors and longtime residents described competing concerns. A contractor who spoke at length urged a rule allowing only the minimum fill needed to make the lot grade contiguous with adjacent lots, saying that approach would prevent large-volume slabs on grade while preserving permeable surfaces; he recommended using variances to accommodate exceptional cases. The contractor said, "If you limit the fill to the amount it takes to make the lot contiguous with the surrounding natural grade, someone will go, 'wait a minute, I can do this and not cause all these issues.'"

Homeowners in Davis Shores described local flooding they blame on recent infill projects and higher finished-floor proposals. Jim Stevens, owner of 165 Inlet Drive, said he does not object to fill in principle but asked the city to inspect a nearby approved project where he believes grading and an accessory structure now block historic drainage and could force water into his property. "Someone should take a look at this and see if there's a way this particular issue can be dealt with," Stevens said.

Several speakers described inconsistent enforcement. Attendees and some commenters pointed to a provision they described as a 30-inch side-yard limit in the city's code of ordinances and said staff has interpreted that language differently, creating a loophole that lets some applicants place large amounts of fill in side yards. Multiple commenters urged the city to clarify that the side-yard limit be measured to adjacent grade and that yard fill cannot be used to build perimeter flood walls that block historic drainage paths.

Technical and policy clarifications raised at the workshop

- Existing local measures mentioned at the workshop include an automatic 1-foot freeboard implemented through the state residential code and local drainage-protection rules that require finished floors in some X-zone properties to be at least 12 inches above the crown of the road. (Skinner described those items in her presentation.)

- Attendees noted a 70% limit on lot coverage in residential properties (structures, pool decks and similar features) currently applied to new development and recently adopted by the city.

- Staff highlighted the potential use of a professional certification of "no adverse impact," signed by a licensed flood engineer, when applicants seek to exceed any numerical fill limits; that certification would document that the proposed grading would not increase flood velocities, runoff or erosion for adjacent lots.

- Deshler said the city participates in FEMA grant programs; staff reported approximately 60 properties were in line for FEMA Flood Mitigation Assistance funding for elevations.

Options under consideration

Workshop discussion organized options into tiers. High-restriction approaches would prohibit fill throughout special flood hazard areas or ban slab-on-grade foundations in identified neighborhoods. Moderate approaches would cap fill at a set height (for example, up to the BFE or a specified number of feet above existing grade) and require engineered certifications for exceptions. Lower-impact measures discussed included limiting impervious surface, encouraging permeable pavers, requiring swales and setbacks, and discouraging full-lot perimeter walls that block drainage.

Staff next steps

Planning staff said they will revise draft ordinance language to clarify what constitutes a structure in a yard and how side-yard fill should be measured and enforced. Skinner told the workshop the administration is "on task to try to have this issue on the April 1 Planning & Zoning Board meeting" and asked attendees to remain engaged.

Ending

No formal ordinance was adopted at the workshop; the meeting served to collect public input and clarify enforcement concerns. City staff said they will return with draft language for the Planning & Zoning Board and that any final change would follow the city''s standard public hearing and adoption process.