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   South Gateway Inundation Park Project Presentation

   discussed

   Staff and consultant Brent Heath (Shroud Engineering) presented three conceptual designs for the South Gateway Inundation Pond project, a stormwater/flood mitigation pond funded by a Resilient Florida Grant. Council discussed the designs but consensus emerged to instead pursue an RFP/public-private partnership rather than predetermine the pond footprint, given rising costs (now ~$2-2.5M vs. original $1.6M), the June 2026 grant deadline, and the increased real estate value of the assembled ~4-acre site.

   • consensus:Council gave direction to pursue an RFP / public-private partnership for the South Gateway site rather than finalize a pond design first. (none)

   📍Acorn Street📍River Road property📍South Gateway area bounded by Main Street, US 19, River Road, and South Road📍SunTrust property📍US Highway 19🏢Florida Department of Environmental Protection🏢Florida Department of Transportation🏢Kaiser University🏢Main Street Landing / Stonehaven🏢Shroud Engineering🏢SunTrust🏢Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council👤Brent Heath👤Councilman Altman👤Councilman Murphy👤Debbie Manz👤Paul Cox👤Robert Rivera#$800,000 grant#Capital Improvement Project budget#Concept 1 / Concept 2 / Concept 3 pond designs#Grant deadline June 2026#Resilient Florida Grant Program#South Gateway Inundation Pond Project#Vulnerability Study

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   [00:00:20] Mayor with that. The project that we are due to discuss this evening is the [00:00:29] South Gateway inundation pond and it is a project that isn't unfamiliar to you [00:00:39] because it's one that we submitted a grant application for a couple of years [00:00:44] ago and in addition to the environmental stewardship associated with such a [00:00:53] project there are also a lot of aesthetic benefits to the development [00:01:07] that might ensue around the project and as you'll recall when we were assembling [00:01:17] property for the purposes of redevelopment of this piece we acquired [00:01:25] the SunTrust piece of property which was almost 2.5 acres in size and we have the [00:01:37] River Road property which adjoins it to the east which the city had owned for a [00:01:46] number of years and we held off on the implementation of the grant in large [00:01:55] part due to the fact that we wanted to get gain some Main Street access to the [00:02:03] property because the assemblage becomes much more attractive to a developer when [00:02:08] you can access it at three different points and in this case you would have [00:02:13] been able to access the property from River Road, from Main Street, and then [00:02:18] from US Highway 19 as well. The property was all assembled and we have started to [00:02:29] work on the implementation of the grant which requires us to consider a good [00:02:37] number of variables and that's why we thought we would conduct a work session [00:02:43] this evening so that we can talk about some of the elements of the project [00:02:48] which we need to define so that we can go forward with it as it is a project in [00:02:57] our current capital improvement project budget. And with that I'll turn it over [00:03:01] to Mr. Rivera. Thank you Ms. Manz. I'm just going to go ahead and introduce Mr. [00:03:07] Brent Heath. He's with Shroud Engineering. He has been contracted with the city [00:03:12] since the beginning when we've had to take a look at some of the different [00:03:17] designs of the pond so far and cost estimates. So with that I'm just going to [00:03:21] turn it over to Brent. Thank you Robert. Thank you Debbie. Brent Heath with [00:03:32] Shroud Engineering. We have been working with the city on this project from the [00:03:39] inception. It's still at this stage in a conceptual format. I believe we started [00:03:52] this process back in 2001 so it's been some time. So the intent and the [00:04:01] purpose of the of the gateway inundation pond was to address the risk [00:04:09] of flooding for that area as well as sea level rise for area communities. This was [00:04:14] done prior to but also in conjunction with the vulnerability study that was [00:04:20] recently completed for the city. We actually looked at the greater, I guess [00:04:29] it was a greater Tampa Bay Planning Council, they had come up with a [00:04:33] preliminary vulnerability assessment of the overall general region for the [00:04:38] Tampa Bay area. We used that as a basis when we went for the grant application. [00:04:49] The gateway project area is bounded by Main Street, US 19, River Road, and South [00:04:54] Road. So it's that that kind of a triangular area that's located within [00:05:01] those air road boundaries. The purpose was to develop flood protection and [00:05:08] stormwater treatment for the future gateway area commercial residential [00:05:13] developments. And in addition to that we wanted to try to incorporate the mature [00:05:20] oak trees that are in that general area for whatever layout we decided on as [00:05:28] well as some park and recreational elements so that it would be something [00:05:31] that would be contributable from a public access as well as as a overall [00:05:37] development feature. And then as part of this we we went through and developed a [00:05:44] probable design permitting and construction costs associated with the [00:05:48] with this project. So initially what we termed as concept number one was the [00:05:55] original pond development layout. As you can see we incorporated what was at that [00:06:07] time potential properties that the city at the time had not acquired but we [00:06:13] looked at that as from an overall standard or overall development [00:06:17] opportunity. So what you'll see is we have the pond area which at this for [00:06:22] this concept was taking for the most part the SunTrust building area as well [00:06:28] as to the parcel to the to the east. We were going to maintain that higher [00:06:34] elevation property which contains a lot of those mature oak trees. This shows a [00:06:41] pedestrian loop around this. So there's the intent was also to do some littoral [00:06:47] shove plantings around the pond so that would be you know you'd have more [00:06:51] vegetation more wildlife features and it would be something that would be you [00:06:56] know visually attractive as well as functional. Okay okay so again this was [00:07:08] conceptual so it was anticipated that there would be development in these [00:07:12] yellow hatched areas that would come in. We would have a feature to this pond [00:07:19] which would be the outfall location right here. We would have a gate assembly [00:07:27] there so that we could actually raise or lower that. So if we were anticipating a [00:07:32] very large storm event coming we could lower that gate during low tide that [00:07:37] would all basically head out from the pond and you'd gain some additional [00:07:42] volume within the pond that we could use for potential flood abatement. It would [00:07:50] require for this particular pond design and volume a 42 inch stormwater pipe [00:07:56] that then would continue on along South River Road up to this property that's on [00:08:04] right there at Acorn and so the intent would be to take that and that would be [00:08:10] our discharge to the river. This pond was designed to basically take handle all [00:08:19] the treatment for the entire 23.5 acres within the gateway basin. So this [00:08:27] design would handle that. [00:08:35] So again this was started back in 2021. At that time the initial cost estimates [00:08:47] were approximately 1.6 million. That was the estimate that was also used [00:08:53] with the grant application. The city was awarded a grant from the Resilient [00:08:59] Florida Grant Program and that's administered by DEP and as we are [00:09:06] currently looking at this the end date for the grant is June 2026. So [00:09:13] approximately a year from now this project would need to be you know [00:09:17] completed. As Debbie alluded to the city completed partial purchases in late [00:09:26] 2023. We were asked to look at the project with today's costs and those [00:09:35] have increased to approximately 2.5 million based on today's dollars. But [00:09:45] this pond would give you significant reduction in your impervious area [00:09:50] especially for that development location. It would treat these stormwater runoffs [00:09:55] that you you are gaining. So instead of having all your where all the properties [00:10:00] now drain into the either the DOT or the city system that goes directly to the [00:10:04] river you would gain some treatment with this project. The floodgates again to [00:10:14] allow the detention pond to be drained so you gain some additional storage [00:10:19] capacity for flood events and we are capable of treating the one-inch runoff [00:10:26] from this entire basin. So these are these are numbers to use as your [00:10:35] reference because what we're looking at is we've gone through and had a couple [00:10:41] other concept conceptual designs and so we just want to have this as a reference [00:10:45] for you as we proceed. Again the potential contributing during the basin [00:10:51] is 23.5 acres. This design handles the available treatment for that entire [00:10:57] basin. Concept number two was brought along due to the increase in costs so we [00:11:12] were asked to look at potential options to try to reduce costs for this area and [00:11:17] also to I guess contain our site within a certain project limit. So that's what [00:11:25] we've done here. The main change, not just from a location standpoint, but we [00:11:35] were maximizing pond volume in this particular location. What this doesn't do [00:11:41] is we remove the park elements and we remove the public access elements. So [00:11:47] this is strictly a stormwater pond but we still have some level of flood [00:11:55] abatement, some level of treatment capacity, but it's approximately half of [00:11:59] what was looked at in concept number one. We still maintain a gate outfall [00:12:06] structure, same concept to reduce the water level in the pond to gain [00:12:14] additional access, but other than that everything else is pretty much the same. [00:12:19] We still would need to route a stormwater pipe to the same outfall [00:12:26] location. [00:12:36] So even with that reduction in size, reduction in location, or revision to [00:12:46] location, the cost estimate for this particular project is still two [00:12:50] million dollars. In addition, we are trying to verify whether the grant would [00:13:01] allow us to revise the pond from what was originally conceptualized [00:13:09] and submitted as part of that grant application. [00:13:18] So again, this is the same design summary. On the far right hand [00:13:23] side, you'll see that was the original metric numbers or values that we used [00:13:28] for the grant application. This pond is essentially about half capacity from [00:13:36] what was the original concept. [00:13:43] Concept number three, we looked at moving the pond away from South River Road back [00:13:53] toward part of that original parcel that was in concept one. So it's a little bit [00:14:00] difficult to see here, but we basically have the pond creating a peninsula [00:14:10] around these mature oaks to try to achieve some level of aesthetic with [00:14:19] those trees, potentially being able to utilize that as some park area if [00:14:25] possible. However, with this alignment or arrangement, we have limited pond area [00:14:32] which we try to maximize within the site. So again, our outfall pipe [00:14:42] is essentially the same, and we are trying to utilize these site [00:14:50] boundary limits and maximize that pond area. However, with that, we are [00:14:57] essentially about a third. [00:15:00] third of the original concept one volume capacity. [00:15:13] And the cost estimate is still right there at 2 million for this version, [00:15:19] which is about the same, what you had in concept two. [00:15:24] And we're still in the same predicament where we need to make sure that the grant [00:15:28] will still be viable for this project should you decide to look at this further. [00:15:41] And again, the original grant value is on the far right. [00:15:45] And we are looking at approximately a third capacity from what we previously submitted. [00:15:52] So at that point, let's, you know, we can open it up for discussion or questions at this. [00:16:02] Let's go back to design number one, and we'll discuss that and then talk about two and then three. [00:16:12] My first thought here is that the idea of a parking available in the city, [00:16:17] you're going to have residents on the one side that are going to have questions about [00:16:22] people in their park. [00:16:24] And then you're going to have retail on the 19th side saying, you know, what's going on behind my building. [00:16:30] Sure. [00:16:33] It's a thought on that one there. [00:16:35] The idea of having a park, but it's and then a police chief might be interested in too, because it's kind of hard to keep drive by and take a look and see what's going on in there. [00:16:45] Just my thoughts. [00:16:47] Mr. Mayor, if you'll allow me, it's been some time since we've talked about what the future development of that project would be. [00:16:56] But the last time we talked about it, we did, we indicated that there would be some high density residential and some low density residential. [00:17:04] And we kind of left open ended the retail component. [00:17:09] And I'm sure we'll define that before we let a formal RFP. [00:17:13] So you're talking about high density on the 19th side? [00:17:16] Yes. [00:17:17] Yes. [00:17:18] And low density on the River Road side of things. [00:17:24] Spanning out to Main Street in the location of the, like the parking garage, the cigar warehouse, excuse me, immediately abutting our parking structure. [00:17:37] That would be more low density leading out to hopefully some new retail on Main Street. [00:17:45] If we can commence a deal with one of the property owners there, and we are having conversations with one of them, I'm sorry. [00:17:53] Is that where Paul Cox used to be? [00:17:56] Is that where Paul Cox used to be, where you'd get out on the 19th? [00:17:59] Paul Cox. [00:18:00] Yeah, he was a chiropractor. [00:18:01] The chiropractor is still there, I know. [00:18:03] Okay, but I'm just looking at where you're getting out on 19th, I mean, not on Main Street. [00:18:08] It depends on which property we purchase, and we're in current discussions with several of the property owners. [00:18:19] I want to jump in and say that we have a pending deadline. [00:18:24] Obviously, that's the first thing to keep at the top of mind. [00:18:27] The second thing is that the whole experience we had last year with the flooding, including the flooding of Highway 19, [00:18:36] that when this thing was originally envisioned, the Department of Transportation had weighed in with some conversations about traffic. [00:18:43] So putting a lot of residential at that point, their suggestion was that some of that traffic backs up to the south and comes out to get on to 19th, [00:18:52] and not tries to go so close to the intersection and get out to make a left. [00:18:59] So whatever happens, we've been holding this large investment for a long time, [00:19:07] and it's the last time we looked at any imagery of how the whole system would work was when we had, the last summer, [00:19:15] we had a drawing that was done, which incorporated a walkway around the outside of the Main Street landing or Stonehaven and under the bridge, [00:19:26] and then connected with what is to be more development on the other side. [00:19:30] So the sad thing to me is that we're here all this time later, and these drawings, I hesitate to ask you when you drew them, [00:19:41] but it's probably been well over a year ago that these drawings were created while we were trying to continue to assemble more land. [00:19:49] The time has come for us to really see what those that have the money to develop this site would do. [00:19:58] And I think, considering the fact that we have such an impending deadline, we probably are not the ones that are going to design this pond. [00:20:08] It's going to be designed in conjunction with a public-private partnership of some kind. [00:20:12] So we can think of how we would imagine the commercial or the residential or that whole district, [00:20:20] but we also have, since then, acquired the little house next to Acorn Street. [00:20:27] Acorn Street itself, which belongs to us, somehow ended up getting transferred to allow for an attenuation and secondary pond [00:20:38] to be put on it for the purposes of the Main Street Landing Stonehaven property. [00:20:44] And I think that now, with us acquiring that and wanting to use it and potentially turn it into a pathway or some additional amenity, [00:20:56] it's time to find out if there's any interest in doing it, because once we build this, we've set the site. [00:21:03] I would agree with what I heard Mr. Murphy, Councilman Murphy, say two years ago, [00:21:09] which was this pond is awfully big to be put in the middle of all of this density that we're trying to have. [00:21:14] And I would suggest that we ought to try to get as innovative as we can in order to entice not only the grant to continue to allow the progress of this, [00:21:27] but maybe to inspire something a little more in line with what the Regional Planning Council had done in a sort of slosh model long ago, [00:21:37] which had drainage really occurring on the existing sites that were there. [00:21:43] So somehow, because they were all impervious, the law allowed them to just build without stormwater. [00:21:51] And so we have inherited now Kaiser University and our parking garage and a hotel. [00:22:00] And tell me if I'm wrong, but that makes up part of the 20-some acres that you're trying to work on. [00:22:05] Yeah. And to clarify, you know, even with sites that are completely impervious, you still have redevelopment rules. [00:22:15] So I'm not exactly sure how those were developed without stormwater included. [00:22:24] But I think at this stage, when we look at it, it's quite likely that they would need. [00:22:30] I think there's storm drains that allow water to cross underneath the highway and go west. [00:22:36] There is. A lot of that property that's up to 19 dumps into the U.S. Highway 19 storm system. [00:22:43] And then when it comes to Kaiser, the parking garage actually was tied into an existing stormwater system [00:22:50] that the city has that goes from U.S. Highway 19 down to the boat ramp. [00:22:57] And so there's two other existing storm systems now that some of that development there is dumping into. [00:23:05] Right. There is drainage away from those properties. [00:23:08] There's drainage, but there's not treatment. [00:23:10] Right. Correct. [00:23:11] So and again, to follow up on my comment, I'm not sure how they got away without providing treatment. [00:23:16] Well, so thank you for that. [00:23:20] But the dirt road, the dirt path that belongs to the church, that's just to the north of your pond as you've designed it. [00:23:27] Yes. You know, that's another opportunity. [00:23:30] And the city has acquired so much money and put so much investment in this [00:23:36] that I think what we really need to do is get this project, both of them out, [00:23:42] just into the market to see if we can get a public-private partnership. [00:23:46] Because anyone who would develop anything there would be required, as you say, to invest in stormwater. [00:23:52] Right. So it's not like this is our cost. [00:23:55] This is the cost that we may be able to help to encourage someone to develop, [00:23:59] which is part of the idea of getting that grant to begin with. [00:24:02] And use that for credits for developers coming in. [00:24:05] Right. And maybe the developers in the private partnership develop it and make it as common land. [00:24:12] And so I think we really need that element. [00:24:17] And this is an opportunity for it to be a demonstration project [00:24:22] and one attractive to people who want to start moving in to that area. [00:24:27] I would add as well that the houses to the south of the one we purchased, [00:24:31] the two roofs you see, including the brown roof, [00:24:35] both of those individuals have expressed an interest in selling those properties. [00:24:42] And if I'm a developer and I know that people are willing to sell, [00:24:48] the developer could buy them, you know, and make that whole thing go. [00:24:53] So not to rain on the parade of the designs that are here in front of us, [00:25:01] but it would be my sense that, to Councilman Murphy's point a year ago, [00:25:07] that there may be more, there may be other plans, whether they be elevated ponds [00:25:12] or water holding underneath a parking lot or some of the things we see in other places [00:25:19] that could still handle the capacity, even if they cost more. [00:25:24] Right. [00:25:26] And then finally, I have to say it's time for us to allow elevation on a project like this. [00:25:33] We have our height restrictions. [00:25:39] The state has pushed against them in some regards for low income and other kind of properties. [00:25:44] But that yellow to the highway side very easily could go up a considerable amount more. [00:25:53] With the tree cover and the distance between those homes on the river [00:25:59] and whatever they have to Highway 19, you know, those are the kind of things we'll hear [00:26:04] from a developer who says, well, I can make this project work if I can put X number of units in. [00:26:11] So I think that's the missing part of this discussion. [00:26:13] I'd love to be the architect or the designer myself, but I don't think that, you know, [00:26:22] I'm dreaming if I think we could design something that would fit a developer's. [00:26:27] I know from Main Street Landing, if you saw the pictures that I had brought in for the McGurns, [00:26:34] who did a fine job and they were really redevelopment, you know, team, [00:26:39] it didn't turn out to be the way that it had been envisioned. [00:26:45] So I think it's time to say, put something out and say, we have an $800,000 grant. [00:26:51] We're looking for proposals and let's bring them in and let the experts design it [00:26:57] and tell us what they think they might do. [00:27:00] I have a couple of points that I want to respond to in respect to the points [00:27:08] that Councilman Altman is making. [00:27:10] First, I want to communicate that we have been in contact with the grant provider [00:27:17] and we've asked for both an extension on the grant and we've also asked [00:27:22] for additional funding to be considered. [00:27:26] And although we haven't heard back from them, I will report to you when we do. [00:27:33] We do have enough of an assemblage at this point that I feel confident that if we went [00:27:39] out to RFP, we're going to get responses. [00:27:42] And I think that that's the right move. [00:27:44] I think it would be wrong for us to footprint an inundation pond [00:27:49] and then tell a developer to design around it. [00:27:53] I think there are too many opportunities and to be frank with you, [00:27:58] the real estate value has increased so much in this area that, I mean, [00:28:05] today's values command over a million dollars an acre in this area of the city. [00:28:11] And collectively, this is over four acres of property that we control. [00:28:16] So, we need to be mindful of that and also of our contribution of a grant [00:28:23] and hopefully be able to work something out with the developer. [00:28:30] No, I think that's the right move. [00:28:32] Yeah, I was going to go on to the second and third one, but the only reason I wanted to get [00:28:36] to the second and third one is because it's more like a park against River Road [00:28:41] and that might chill out the people on the water on River Road, you know, [00:28:46] because it won't be whatever the person brought that was going to build on that would, [00:28:52] you know, they would like, yeah, it's our quiet neighborhood and things of that sort [00:28:57] where that's one reason I was going to mention this one first because it separated away, [00:29:01] but the others were, the pond was on River Road. [00:29:04] Again, I don't want to be responsible for the design, but it is just such a nice amenity [00:29:10] to have a walking path and to include the oak trees. [00:29:15] You hate to surrender that as part of a project. [00:29:19] So, it'll be interesting to see what we can get our hands on as options for you to consider. [00:29:26] I think the whole alphabet is what we're looking at. [00:29:32] None of us are architects up here. [00:29:34] I just don't want to separate it because that, to me, devalues it. [00:29:39] You know, they should be able to intertwine. [00:29:42] Right. Yeah, the integration, I think, is a really important component [00:29:48] and so that'll need to be part of the design. [00:29:53] One other comment I'd like to add in all my years [00:29:56] in the community development district business because I spent a good [00:30:00] of time, and with those it was the Lennars, the KP Holmes, and the U.S. Holmes who I would [00:30:06] always try as a New Port Richey guy to get them interested in our city. And the process [00:30:12] that they go through and the effort and some of the assemblages and the answer always was [00:30:19] these projects were too small. So when you take this project and you look at the other [00:30:24] assembly we have and you look at what we have out on the highway and beyond, I think [00:30:35] we've reached that critical mass to your point that we could attract folks who have the wherewithal [00:30:41] in today's environment to come in and like to do something that they can go to these [00:30:48] conferences and say, hey, look what we've done here. And particularly with the interest [00:30:53] right now in the stormwater, it's a good story and maybe one that can be replicated [00:30:59] in small ways along our river and actually help us to avoid some of the flooding. I think [00:31:07] Robert, you've mentioned it before, when the storm comes in, if it's a tidal surge, it [00:31:14] hits us. And so it's only marginal whether these things are going to make much difference. [00:31:21] But if we don't try to make some difference, it's kind of like the old story, if it's saved [00:31:24] one life, it's worth it. If we can save ten houses by doing something responsible, at [00:31:30] least we've made that a factor. [00:31:32] Do you happen to remember, Robert, if during Helena the water went across your road in [00:31:39] that area? [00:31:41] The second, I forget which one it was, but the second storm, or the third storm that [00:31:46] came in was in both lanes of US Highway 19. [00:31:50] Right, that was the lane. [00:31:53] But the properties, no. [00:31:54] No, I was talking about River Road. [00:31:57] No, River Road, we only had the area that was just south of Acorn Street that historically [00:32:04] floods was where the water ponded as it was heading toward, because the topography goes [00:32:09] there and it wants to go out to the river. That's the area where it flooded. But if we're [00:32:15] redesigning something, we can incorporate that. [00:32:18] And then to add to your point, if we're redeveloping the other side of the boat ramp and stuff [00:32:25] like that in the future, that would also give us the opportunity to put some kind of water [00:32:29] quality element in that project to where that water wouldn't just directly discharge into [00:32:36] the river. [00:32:37] Why I was asking that is because if we're going to try to sell somebody on this property, [00:32:42] we can say we had a lane that didn't flood the property at all. [00:32:45] Correct, it didn't. [00:32:47] That's what I was looking for. [00:32:49] And those two houses, Mr. Mayor, that I mentioned, they did get, one got water in it, the other [00:32:56] one did a fine job of creating a bit of a dam around the entrances to keep the water [00:33:03] out. But both of them experienced the fear and the threat, which some of those houses [00:33:13] along that road obviously have as well. [00:33:15] Then I think, do you have your guidance? [00:33:18] Let's get it on the books. [00:33:20] I do. [00:33:23] Thank you. [00:33:24] nod your head. [00:33:25] Yes. [00:33:27] Thank you very much. [00:33:28] You're welcome. [00:33:29] Thank you. [00:33:30] Thank you. [00:33:33] Anything else? [00:33:34] See you in half an hour. [00:33:35] Okay. [00:33:37] See you in about? [00:33:38] Half an hour. [00:33:39] Half an hour, okay.

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3. 3Adjournment