In March of 2021, the East Central Florida Regional Planning Council (ECFRPC) approached the City of Palm Bay to serve as a project partner for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) Resilience Planning Grant (RPG) under the Florida Resilient Coastlines Grant program.

The purpose of this FDEP Resilient Coastlines grant program is to promote community resilience planning in Florida’s coastal communities through compliance with Section 163.3178(2)(f), F.S. relating to "Peril of Flood" for communities with a Coastal Management Element in the comprehensive plan, preparing vulnerability assessments outside of what is required to comply with Peril of Flood, adaptation and resilience plans, and regional collaboration efforts.

On April 15, 2021, City Council authorized staff to apply for a grant for $75,000 through this program. However, on May 12, 2021, Governor DeSantis signed into law Senate Bill 1954, which provided over $640 million in comprehensive funding for his new initiative, the Resilient Florida Grant program, which is intended to enhance Florida’s efforts to ensure a coordinated approach to Florida’s coastal and inland resiliency.

FDEP has been tasked to identify projects which could be expanded in scope and reassigned for additional funding under the umbrella of the Governor’s new grant program. ECFRPC and FDEP have approached the City of Palm Bay to request an expansion of the previously authorized Florida Resilient Coastlines Grant (RPG) for consideration of applying for and utilizing grant funding through Resilient Florida instead.

Utilizing the Resilient Florida Grant program funding, the expanded project will provide a citywide vulnerability assessment to include an assessment of city infrastructure, facilities, land uses, as well as a future focus of flooding, surge, and sea-level rise through a plan integration analysis of its Stormwater Master Plan and Land Development Code, and will enable the City to develop strategies to make the community more resilient through a planning horizon of 2100.

In addition to a comprehensive vulnerability assessment and plan integration analysis, a GIS-story map will be designed to showcase the information and data which feeds the findings.  The project team will undertake public engagement activities and develop and provide educational materials to include a web page.

The proposed revised scope of work includes an increase in the grant request and project cost to $100,000 and consists of a two-task project (citywide vulnerability assessment  and analysis of the Stormwater Master Plan and Land Development Code) with a timeline to be billed to the City following satisfactory performance on August 30, 2022, and May 31, 2023, for $20,000 and $80,000 respectively.

If awarded, the City will entered into a grant agreement with FDEP whereas the City would serve as the grantee and ECFRPC would serve as the subject matter expert and project team lead performing all tasks and invoicing the City for deliverables. The City would utilize the Florida Resilient Coastlines grant award to reimbursement itself.