Monroe County is launching a new program that gives neighborhoods greater control over local infrastructure improvements, allowing residents to partner with the county on projects ranging from drainage upgrades to canal improvements.
Monroe County Chief Resilience Officer Rhonda Haag joined Good Morning Keys on Keys Talk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about projects in the county.
The newly approved Residential Neighborhood Improvements Program is designed to help communities complete projects without waiting years for county funding.
“What they can do is, by completing an online form, if a neighborhood is interested in a street improvement, a drainage improvement, a canal improvement like a weed gate, the county can help the community with that,” Haag said. “We can get the permits for them and install that.”
Haag explained that if at least 51 percent of affected property owners approve a proposed project, the county would advance the funding, obtain permits, complete construction and recover the costs through assessments placed on benefiting properties.
“As long as 51% of the neighborhood approves moving forward with that project and reimburses the county ultimately for the costs that the county puts in, then the county would advance the money,” she said.
Residents will also have flexibility in how those assessments are repaid.
“If there was no operations and maintenance component to it, then the residents really would determine how long they want that assessment to last,” Haag said. “If they want smaller amounts, it can be spread out over a lot of years. If they want bigger amounts and get it over with, it could be spread out over four or five years.”
Haag said the county has already received interest from nearly a dozen neighborhoods.
“We’ve heard from almost a dozen neighborhoods already that are interested in all types of different neighborhood projects,” she said. “Three or four of them just wanted drainage improvements on their streets. A couple others wanted breakwater repair, and actually we had some plugged canal neighborhoods that were interested in using this ordinance.”
Some neighborhoods have also expressed interest in reopening plugged canals, although Haag cautioned those projects face additional regulatory hurdles.
“The commission did say, ‘Let’s take a deeper dive into that,'” Haag said. “Each plugged canal is going to be different because some have administrative orders in place where it doesn’t allow the unplugging.”
The county also approved a Financial Assistance Hardship Deferral Program to help qualifying lower-income homeowners.
“If there are residents that are lower income and perhaps couldn’t afford the assessment, and if they qualify, then their assessments wouldn’t be deleted—they would just be deferred until the sale of the house,” Haag said. “It’s a way to help the low-income folks also and still get neighborhood projects done.”
County staff are developing a dedicated webpage with program information and application materials.
Haag also provided updates on several resilience projects already underway.
She said breakwater restoration projects in Tavernier and Rock Harbor have been completed, providing protection against storm surge while reducing sargassum entering nearby canals.
“The breakwater rock work is done,” Haag said. “Those neighborhoods are now protected against storm surge. Not saying a Category 5, but at least most of the storm surge.”
She said the projects have already begun producing additional environmental benefits.
“Once you get that rock wall above water, it also protects the sargassum from coming in,” Haag said. “We’re already seeing an improvement in the canals behind them.”
The final phase of those projects involves installing air curtain systems that will further reduce sargassum entering the waterways.
“As soon as we’re able to put those air curtains in here in the next two weeks, those canals behind Tavernier and behind Rock Harbor will be pretty well fully protected from incoming sargassum,” Haag said. “It’s a mess this year. Everybody’s complaining, and everybody’s got black water. It’s really much worse than normal.”
Haag said homeowners interested in installing their own air curtain systems or floating booms can contact Monroe County’s resilience office for information about qualified vendors and permitting requirements.
“If anybody’s interested, they can contact me,” she said. “We have two or three different vendors, and we also have vendors for what’s called booms that can help keep seagrass from reaching the shoreline.”
Haag acknowledged that obtaining permits for air curtain systems remains one of the biggest challenges.
“It’s easy to get the $5 million project permitted,” she said. “It takes us a lot longer to get the air curtain permitted.”
She said the new neighborhood improvement program gives the county an opportunity to assist residents through that complex permitting process.
“I see this as a potential way for the county to help the residents,” Haag said. “We could go ahead and get it permitted for them, installed, and then monitor and maintain it for them too. All they have to do is enjoy their canal.”