Dania Beach consultants present stormwater master plan identifying 10 priority study areas

Consultants from Shen Moore Consulting presented the City of Dania Beach’s stormwater master plan at the city’s final public workshop, describing a citywide hydraulic model and a prioritized set of 10 study areas for capital improvement projects.

Fernando Rodriguez, Director of Public Services for the City of Dania Beach, opened the meeting and described the workshop as the final public input session for the master plan. Jennifer Smith, the project presenter, said the team modeled the city (about eight square miles and roughly 31,000 residents), incorporated 26 miles of city drainage infrastructure and mapped canal connections to understand where water ponds on roadways during a 10‑year storm event.

The consultant team classified basins by depth and duration of flooding and flagged 'red' basins where a modeled 10‑year storm produced more than one foot of water on roadways. "The red basins are the highest — they show exceeding one foot of flooding from a 10‑year storm event," Smith said. Using those results, the team grouped high‑vulnerability basins into 10 study areas to guide future capital improvements.

Engineered alternatives tested in the model included new gravity pipes, exfiltration trenches, backflow preventers at outfalls, retention areas and pump (lift) stations. The consultants recommended matching the alternative to local constraints (for example, exfiltration where groundwater is lower than pipe elevations and backflow preventers where canal levels threaten to push water back into streets).

The presentation included individual CIP-level cost estimates for study areas: the Griffin Road area (design, permit and construction roughly $9 million), a Lake George area with a larger pump requirement (just over $15 million), an industrial corridor CIP (~$7.2 million), and additional study-area estimates commonly in the $4–$9 million range. The consultants said they did not price seawall improvements because seawalls are largely privately owned and raise separate policy and funding questions.

Smith and city staff emphasized that the master plan focuses on city‑owned rights of way and infrastructure; county, state or privately owned roadways and systems were not analyzed in the model. The plan is intended to serve as a prioritization document to pursue grants and other funding sources, and to guide updates to stormwater utility fees and maintenance budgets.

The consultants also recommended continued coordination with external agencies — Broward County, FDOT, the South Florida Water Management District and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers — for canal dredging, pump permits and upstream flow monitoring. Jennifer Smith said the maps and figures presented would be posted on the city website for public review.

Next steps described to the audience included posting the plan materials online, developing a funding plan (including grant pursuit and a review of local stormwater utility fees), and pursuing policy and code reviews to encourage low‑impact development features in new private construction.