ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — To continue living and working in St. Augustine, the way buildings are built needs to change. That’s the consensus from some of the city's leaders.
St. Augustine has seen more frequently flooded streets and homes in the last 10 years.
However, the city is so popular, that it is also seeing more construction of new buildings and additions to existing homes.
"We are realizing that we need to understand as more development comes in, there are low-lying areas that we need to identify that really should be required to build in a certain way," Amy Skinner said. She is St. Augustine’s Planning and Building director.
A few years ago, the city implemented changes to its building policies. The changes included requiring 30 percent of a residential property to have permeable surfaces.
"That's so you have some open area for water to drain," Skinner noted.
Another change required property owners constructing a new home to submit a grading plan "to make sure that you’re going to disperse the water that might accumulate on your lot to your neighbors," Skinner explained.
And even in the last three years since those policies were implemented, "we’re seeing more and more development," Skinner said. And they're building in a way that floods their neighbors’ properties or the road.
So, next week, the City of St. Augustine will have a public meeting to kick off discussions about how to build in ways that lessen the flooding’s impact on surrounding properties.
These discussions will extend into the next year because in a low-lying, popular coastal city such as St. Augustine, "we’re going to have to deal with sea level rise, nuisance flooding more often, and with storms that are potentially stronger and bigger," Skinner said.
The meeting to start these discussions will be next Wednesday, Dec. 18 at 9 a.m. in the Alcazar Room at St. Augustine City Hall.
