The Federal Emergency Management Agency and Florida Division of Emergency Management have received the following application for Federal grant funding. Final notice is hereby given of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) consideration to provide funding in the form of Hazard Mitigation Grant Program. Funds will be provided in accordance with Section 404 of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act, Public Law 93-288, as amended.
Under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), federal actions must be reviewed and evaluated for feasible alternatives and for social, economic, historic, environmental, legal, and safety considerations. Under Executive Order (EO) 11988 and EO 11990 FEMA is required to consider alternatives to and to provide public notice of any proposed actions in or affecting floodplains or wetlands. EO 12898 also requires FEMA to provide the opportunity for public participation in the planning process and to consider potential impacts to minority or low-income populations.
Funding for the proposed project will be conditional upon compliance with all applicable federal, tribal, state and local laws, regulations, floodplain standards, permit requirements and conditions.
Applicant:
City of Atlantic Beach
Project Title:
HMGP-4337-138-R - Phase II City of Atlantic Beach, Aquatic Gardens, Drainage
Location of Proposed Work:
The area affected by this project consists of homes in the following locations:
Aquatic Gardens neighborhood on Aquatic Drive
Proposed Work and Purpose:
The proposed work consists of dredging the Aquatic Gardens stormwater pond to provide additional storage capacity, a pump station for pumping the pond down prior to storm events, replacement of an undersized box culvert at the entrance to the shopping center on Aquatic Drive and drainage ditch improvements to increase hydraulic capacity. The purpose of the project is to reduce the flood stage in the surrounding Aquatic Gardens residential area for the 25-year/24-hour or less storm event. This project will not create adverse downstream stage or peak flow rate.
Project Alternatives:
The alternatives to the project that have been and will be considered are 1) the no action alternative and 2) create a new outfall. These alternatives to the proposed project are not viable because under Alternative 1) repetitive flooding is not alleviated and the needs of the community would not be served; and Alternative 2) The City could create a new outfall from Hopkins Creek to the Intracoastal Waterway This outfall would require a large pump system because there is not enough gradient across the landscape to drain via gravity outfall. Today’s costs for this project are estimated to be $11,956,000 which would not be cost-effective additional property is not currently available, and therefore not practicable.
Comment Period:
Comments are solicited from the public; local, state or federal agencies; and other interested parties in order to consider and evaluate the impacts of the proposed project. The comments should be made in writing and addressed to the Florida Division of Emergency Management, Bureau of Mitigation, 2555 Shumard Oak Blvd., Tallahassee, FL 32399-2100. These are due within 30 days of this notice (or the actual date). The State will forward comments to applicable regulatory agencies as needed. Interested persons may submit comments, obtain more detailed information about the proposed action, or request a copy of the findings by contacting:
Stephen Swann, PE/City Engineer
(904) (247-5874)
City of Atlantic Beach
sswann@coab.us
Kayla Born, State Lead Environmental Specialist
(850) 755-4582
Florida Division of Emergency Management
Kayla.Born@em.myflorida.com
Source: https://coab.us/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=1150
Alerts Sign-up