The Brittany Bay Park and Living Shoreline project is designed to increase our city’s greenspace, protect the local community from storms and flooding, and reduce urban heat, all while providing vital natural habitat and improving water quality in Biscayne Bay through the use of nature-based solutions. Nature-based solutions can be defined as the sustainable management and use of nature for tackling challenges such as climate change, water and food security, biodiversity protection, human health, and disaster risk management. This project renovates Brittany Bay Park and constructs a new living shoreline with an overlook deck that will connect park users to the water’s edge.  The project includes improved pathways, new exercise equipment, site furniture, and new pedestrian lighting shall enhance visibility throughout the park. Additional trees and other landscape features will also be planted throughout the park to boost biodiversity and promote neighborhood resilience.

With cooperation from The Nature Conservancy and with support from Florida Power & Light Company through its charitable arm the NextERA Energy Foundation, the project will be the City’s second hybrid design that incorporates a living shoreline into a structural seawall. The structural seawall rehabilitated as a part of an earlier construction phase of the project was designed to protect several existing mangroves and create new coastal habitat. The current construction phase of the project includes the planting of more mangroves and other native wetland vegetation while removing invasive or exotic vegetation along the waterfront, and planting additional native shade trees including green buttonwood, gumbo limbo, and pitch apple in upland areas of the park.

These improvements will not only revitalize the waterfront for park users, but they will also enhance biodiversity by creating new coastal habitat for wildlife, increase neighborhood resilience through expanding the urban tree canopy with drought-tolerant and wind-resistant native species, and improve water quality by filtering water run-off from the park. Brittany Bay Park reopened to the public on March 6, 2023 for all to enjoy.