Miami Beach Receives $454K in Additional Resilient Florida Grant Funding

(Miami Beach, FL) May 9, 2022 -

The City of Miami Beach has been awarded an additional $454,000 in state grant money to help protect the coastal city against the threat of sea level rise as climate experts from around the United States prepare to arrive in Miami Beach this week for the inaugural Aspen Ideas: Climate on May 9-12. This funding is in addition to the $47 million recently awarded to implement resilience projects in Miami Beach.

“Miami Beach has emerged as a leader in showing other coastal communities the way forward through planning, science, and engineering in addressing the challenges posed by sea level rise,” Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber said. “We are thankful to the state for these additional funds critical to address the realities of a changing climate.”

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced the award of planning grants totaling nearly $20 million in state funds under the Resilient Florida Program last week. The grants support 98 awards to develop or update comprehensive vulnerability assessments in inland and coastal communities.

Vulnerability assessments are required by the Resilient Florida program to assess and identify critical infrastructure at risk of flooding from sea level rise, storm surge and rainfall events. The assessments assist local communities like Miami Beach in prioritizing and developing implementation strategies and projects designed to reduce, alleviate, or mitigate the effects of flooding.

Miami Beach is incrementally adapting to climate change, reducing the risks from storm surge, rising sea levels and rainfall while investing in much-needed infrastructure and quality of life improvements. Land use regulations require developers to account for sea level projections. Once among the city’s most vulnerable neighborhoods to flooding, Sunset Harbour has successfully avoided more than 130 potential flooding events since work was completed in that neighborhood several years ago.

The $47 million in grant money will be used to fund various city projects, including First Street, Fire Station 1, North Beach Town Center, beach dune enhancements and gravity sewer mains replacement.

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