Flagler County updates multi‑reach beach plan; hard‑bottom mapping raises mitigation cost questions

County engineers and consultants gave the Board of County Commissioners a progress report on a multi‑reach beach management plan on Monday, highlighting extensive nearshore hard‑bottom locations and permitting and easement hurdles that could reshape the project’s scale and cost.

The update, delivered by county engineer Hamid Tabacion and Moffett & Nichol consultant Casey Connor, covered completed emergency work at Reach 1 and detailed design and permitting for Reaches 2 and 3. Tabacion told the board Reach 1 was completed in August 2024 and that Reach 2 is expected to be bid in mid‑January with construction targeted for summer 2026. Connor said the Reach 3 design spans roughly six miles from Washington Oaks Garden State Park to Varn Park.

Why it matters: remote sensing and early field surveys identified substantial discontinuous and continuous hard‑bottom outcroppings offshore that federal and state regulators treat as environmentally sensitive. Connor said scientific diving to verify remote sensing has been limited by winter conditions: “We still have about 85 to 90% that’s left unverified.” That verification matters because regulators generally presume hard bottom exists unless diving proves otherwise.

The consultants warned that if dredging impacts hard bottom, the county will face expensive mitigation. “Mitigation construction is approximately 2 and a half to $3,000,000 per acre,” Connor said, with additional multi‑year monitoring costs. He told commissioners that mitigation needs and hard‑bottom acreages could force the county to consider alternatives — including trucking sand to build a larger dune rather than dredging offshore — if the data show extensive, high‑quality hard bottom.

Commissioners pressed staff on operational barriers. One commissioner pointed out that 30 private easements remain unsigned for Reach 2 and urged a more aggressive outreach or legal strategy; staff said property owners had been contacted and that temporary construction easements were being offered where perpetual easements were not available. Tabacion said maintenance agreements with the City of Flagler Beach and the Town of Beverly Beach remain pending.

Public commenters urged the board to accelerate mapping and to pursue all funding sources, including state programs created or amended by recent legislation. Several residents and community groups recommended a centralized public tracker of easement status; staff said the county will publish a new beach‑management web page and a GIS tracker with an updated easements layer.

What’s next: consultants recommended completing scientific diving in summer 2026 when weather and water clarity are more favorable, advancing permitting with federal and state agencies, and continuing negotiations for easements and maintenance agreements. If the diving confirms fewer or lower‑quality hard bottoms than remote sensing indicates, consultants said mitigation ratios and program costs could come down. If not, the county will need to weigh more expensive mitigation or truck‑in dune options before committing to large‑scale dredging.