Neighborhood Resiliency Projects Advisory Committee

In 2023, the Committee concluded, two years after its establishment, as per Resolution No. 2021-31898, but was re-established on January 31, 2024, as per Ordinance No. 2024-4587, as a Standing Committee so the City may continue to engage residents to build and strengthen the stakeholder and community support and feedback, as well as to highlight areas of concern in delivering these critical projects.

Purpose

The purpose of the Neighborhood Resilience Projects Advisory Committee is to act as an advisory board to City Commission and City Manager on neighborhood infrastructure programs and private property matters related to the City's resilience projects. This includes helping build awareness of existing and future projects within the community and seeking resident ideas and feedback to improve the planning and delivery of future projects. The Committee will not advise on matters that have specifically been reviewed by the City Commission to avoid creating fiscal impacts or undue delays in the implementation of critical resiliency projects.

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Powers and Duties

The Neighborhood Resiliency Projects Advisory Committee shall have the following powers and duties:

1. Provide advisory recommendations and feedback on best approaches to enhance resident education and resident engagement.
2. Provide advisory recommendations and feedback regarding process improvements for flood mitigation.
3. Share input and evaluate general neighborhood aesthetics and utility and infrastructure improvements, such as location decision criteria for pump stations or other improvements. 
4. Provide a forum for the Committee to share best practices and lessons learned from completed projects and/or ongoing projects, for potential incorporation as part of future projects.

• Clare McCord (Chair), appointed by Commissioner Laura Dominguez
• Curt Dyer (Vice Chair), appointed by Commissioner David Suarez
• Karin Matos, appointed by Commissioner Tanya K. Bhatt
• Ronald Starkman, appointed by Commissioner Alex Fernandez
• Julie Basner, appointed by Commissioner Joe Magazine
• Barbara Montero, appointed by Commissioner Kristen Rosen Gonzalez

Private Property Adaptation Program - A competitive grant program that will support property owners in assessing their flood risk and making flood mitigation improvements

Plastic Free MB - This program aims to showcase businesses that have taken action to reduce plastics from their establishments and to help organizations learn and implement best practices in the area of environmental stewardship.

Private Seawall Elevation Policy- Information on private seawall height requirements.

Dune Protection: Information about the importance of coastal dunes for our city, its management, and 2021 protection ordinance.

Fertilizers and Water Quality: Information about the impacts of fertilizer on water quality, and 2021 ordinance for controlling its use.

Erosion Control and Water Quality: This is the 2021 ordinance controlling sediment erosion to protect Biscayne Bay water quality. 

Resilience Code: Follow this link to see the latest updates on the restructuring of our City Code to focus on allowing for and promoting resilient development. 

2040 Comprehensive Plan Resilient Land Use (RLU) Element
As a coastal barrier island, the City is a State-designated Adaptation Action Area, extremely vulnerable to environmental threats such as rising sea levels, tidal flooding, and storms. The plan calls for the City to prioritize strategies in areas which currently experience or are projected to experience tidal flooding, storm surge, or both as a priority for the development and implementation of adaption strategies.  

Road Elevation Strategy -This 2020 strategy provides minimum road elevations, considering SLR, King Tides, and high groundwater levels to design for a 30-year road life span. It sets the minimum BORB (Bottom of Road Base) elevation for all roads at 2.9' NAVD. For local and major roads, minimum EOR (Edge of Road) is 3.9' NAVD. For emergency roads, minimum EOR is 4.8' NAVD.

Neighborhood Project Prioritization  - This 2020 plan is a vulnerability assessment that considers flood risk management, public safety, and supply reliability for services like maintaining adequate water systems for fire suppression. The City’s 21 neighborhoods are prioritized by integrating flood risk management capital projects with water and sewer capital projects (to minimize the impact on communities by performing construction for these projects at the same time), and then normalized by population.

Blue-Green Stormwater Infrastructure (BGSI) Plan-This 2020 plan is an evaluation of BGSI strategies, concepts, and locations that might be applicable in Miami Beach given its constraints as a densely built-out, low-lying coastal community and the constraints of the environmental regulatory process. The strategies and concepts are geared towards creating a more robust and well-rounded stormwater program that reduce flooding from smaller, more frequent storms, manages non-point source pollution, increases infiltration of rainwater, leverages innovative urban design, and provides social/environmental/economic co-benefits.

Columbia Resilience Accelerator - Through the Rockefeller Foundation's 100 Resilient Cities program, the City was awarded participation in the Columbia University Accelerator, which brought together multi-disciplinary expertise to assist the community in advancing the West Avenue project design to keep the project moving forward while integrating a more holistic resilience approach. This process involved the full city team, outside experts, meetings with neighborhood associations, and approvals through the Commission and Committee process. Members of the City Commission directly participated in the process, as well.

Buoyant City - How can historic properties and districts adapt to sea level rise? This 2020 study focuses on historic districts to understand and communicate the relationship between resilience practices and historic preservation. It illustrates practical steps and proposes new preservation/resilience frameworks.

The Business Case for the City of Miami Beach Stormwater Resilience Program - To understand the value of investing in public and private infrastructure, the City conducted a business case analysis of our stormwater program in 2019. The study considered the effect of SLR and infrastructure investments on factors such as flood damages, property values, insurance premiums, tax revenues, and business disruptions. 

Ordinance 2024-4587

Ordinance 2024-4587 Establish NRPA Committee

ULI Stormwater Management and Climate Adaptation Review - With the support of the 100 Resilient Cities initiative, the Urban Land Institute was invited to assess the city’s current stormwater management and climate adaptation strategy and propose additional efforts to further bolster the city’s existing strategy. The group of experts from around the globe conducted an intensive 3-day visit and ultimately produced this report in 2018, which includes recommendations and a set of guiding principles the city continues to implement today.

Southeast Florida Climate Change Compact Sea Level Rise projections - The Compact brought together Monroe, Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties to create a single, regionally unified projection. Working off of the same assumptions allows for consistency in adaptation planning and policy, and infrastructure siting and design, across our region. The following document is the 2019 update and finds that sea level rise is projected to be 10 to 17 inches by 2040 and 21 to 54 inches by 2070. Miami Beach has adopted these projections for planning.  

Overview of Sea Level Rise - This page provides a summarized overview of what sea level rise means for Miami Beach. 

Resilience timeline from MB Magazine - This timeline appeared in the Spring 2019 MB Magazine special edition dedicated to resilience. Learn about the City’s steps on planning for and responding to the challenges posed by climate change.

Resilience Overview - Learn about the City’s holistic approach and efforts to address climate change resilience through this interactive flyer