St. Johns County and the rest of the First Coast are getting a hefty share of new grants awarded Tuesday that are meant to improve the resilience of coastal and near-coastal communities in the face of rising sea levels.
Gov. Ron DeSantis announced he was awarding nearly $20 million on Tuesday, coinciding with his signing a bill to create a statewide Office of Resilience under his executive control.
The funds will be used to create or update resiliency plans for municipalities to address critical infrastructure that could be in danger of flooding in the face of higher water tables and coastal erosion.
Here's how the awards shake out in the Greater Jacksonville area:
Duval
- $500,000 to Jacksonville.
- $194,000 to Jacksonville Beach.
- $100,000 to Neptune Beach.
Nassau
- $82,997 to Fernandina Beach.
St. Johns
- $500,000 for a countywide assessment.
- $500,000 to St. Augustine.
Clay
- $400,000 for a countywide assessment.
- $150,000 to Orange Park.
Flagler
- $75,000 for a countywide assessment.
- $100,000 to Flagler Beach and Beverly Beach.
Putnam
- $150,000 for a countywide assessment.
Baker
- No grant.
Resiliency efforts are exclusively focused on sea level rise and storm preparedness. The former Office of Resilience and Coastal Protection, which DeSantis created via executive order within the Department of Environmental Protection in 2019, explicitly did not include climate change or its causes in its mission.
The new Office of Resilience, which is being moved out of DEP and into the Governor's Office, is no different. It's now officially codified into state statute as a government agency, though an amendment by state Democrats to include addressing climate change in its purview was voted down by the Republican majority.
Resiliency has increasingly become a priority for the state. DeSantis announced $670 million for resiliency projects last year, awarded over $400 million in the opening months of 2022, and DEP is currently soliciting grant proposals for the next round of funding until June 22.
As part of the new law that created the Office of Resilience, the state will draft a resilience strategy for Florida's highways and create a database of critical infrastructure threatened by sea level rise such as airports, hospitals and utilities.
A list of all resiliency projects in the state, categorized by priority and cost, will also be made.
