resiliency

The Jacksonville City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved $75 million in funding for the ongoing St. Johns River dredging project.

The North Florida Land Trust (NFLT) is getting a $450,000 grant from the Houston-based EJK Foundation to support efforts in the Ocala to Osceola Wildlife Corridor.

The Jacksonville Resiliency and Climate Change Coalition, a newly formed advocacy group working to raise awareness of the local impacts of climate change and sea level rise, is looking to better engage minority communities.

During Thursday’s meeting, the first since February, Jacksonville’s Special Committee on Resiliency voted to establish three new subcommittees, which residents are being encouraged to join.

As Florida’s 2020 legislative session comes to a close, lawmakers can celebrate the bills they passed. But hundreds of other proposals died along the way, including a bill that would have established a state-wide office of resiliency.

A new coalition of organizations and community members is working to increase public awareness of the local impacts of climate change and sea level rise, advocate for local climate action, and support Jacksonville’s new Special Committee on Resiliency.

Leaders from around Northeast Florida are calling on Jacksonville - the largest city in the region by far - to appoint a chief resilience officer or establish an Office of Resilience, but Mayor Lenny Curry is not yet taking a position on the issue.

Jacksonville’s new Special Committee on Resiliency held its first meeting on Monday and several committee members openly supported the idea of appointing a chief resilience officer.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has announced that more than $44 million in Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery funding has been awarded to 11 communities that were impacted by Hurricane Irma, including Jacksonville.

This week, the Jacksonville City Council passed a last-minute budget amendment to end the city’s annual financial contribution to be part of the Northeast Florida Regional Council.

When Hurricane Dorian skirted the east coast of Florida earlier this month, there was flooding throughout St. Augustine. 

But the South Davis Shores neighborhood was hit harder than anywhere else in the city.

Jacksonville’s state mandated sea level rise task force has wrapped up its work, approving the remaining proposals in a list of recommendations that will eventually go before City Council.

Jacksonville’s sea level rise task force has voted in favor of several more recommendations to submit to City Council before the temporary committee disbands later this month.

After several months, Jacksonville’s sea level rise task force plans to wrap up its work by the end of August. 

Jacksonville’s sea level rise work group voted unanimously Friday to expand its boundaries to include areas that have been impacted by flooding in recent hurricanes.

Councilmembers Lori Boyer and Jim Love have filed a bill they hope will better prepare Jacksonville for sea-level rise and flooding.

More than two months after its first meeting, members of Jacksonville’s Storm Resiliency and Infrastructure Development Review Committee are beginning to spend less time learning and listening and more time putting together proposals they think will help prepare the city for sea level rise and flooding.

Local environmental advocates and policy experts say they’re cautiously optimistic about two recently announced committees designed to address sea level rise and flooding in Jacksonville.

The City of St. Augustine and Flagler College hosted a workshop Thursday focused on resilience, sea level rise and the future impact of flooding on historic places where the results of a recently conducted survey on the same topics were presented.