North Bay Village Civic Park Living Shoreline

North Bay Village (NBV), an island community, is developing a new Civic Park, which is funded by two grants, the first from Florida Inland Navigation District (FIND) and the second from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) Land and Water Conservation Fund (L&WCF) grant, totaling over $900,000. RES was assigned to the project by an NBV Commissioner, due to our experience with living shorelines and Biscayne Bay permitting regulations.

RES is responsible for environmental site analysis, engineering, and permitting of this unique living shoreline and public waterway access project. To expedite permitting, RES performed a benthic survey under an initial task order before project design authorization, which mapped the locations and quality of seagrasses, corals, and benthic resources in the project area. RES worked with the multi-disciplinary project team, including landscape architects, civil/structural/coastal/environmental/electrical engineers, planners, scientists, stakeholders, and university advisors to develop a hybrid living shoreline plan that avoided all seagrass resources and minimized the project footprint to expedite permitting of in-water features. The grants require the project to include a non-motorized boating dock for public access, a picnic area with a pavilion, a nature trail with signage, lighting, landscaping, and a bike rack. Replacement of the existing seawall and a children’s splash pad were additions to the project during project implementation and approved by the Village Commission.

The living shoreline is designed to be resilient to meet the Village’s new seawall code, which requires adaptation to sea level rise and includes structural stabilization for this island community, which currently consists entirely of seawall/bulkheads at the waterfront edge. Innovative design elements such as the living seawall panels/cap fascia with ecological concrete and textured biophilic face were developed during the project design by RES, the coastal and structural engineers, ecological concrete manufacturers, Village staff, as well as an advisory team from University of Miami Civil Engineering department. Environmental permitting is the critical pathway for the construction of the living shoreline and ADA-accessible floating kayak dock. RES has worked with the project design team to streamline the design and permitting timeline to meet grant requirements. The living shoreline design is prepared to self-mitigate to environmental resources, subject to agency approval.

Construction is planned for late 2024.