After recent hurricanes, residents said they experienced area flooding which would have inundated their homes, if it had been just a bit higher. Therefore, they believe that in a future hurricane, the additional water due to the new impervious road surface could trigger serious home flooding.

 

Discussing this in 2018, city officials admitted that after Hurricane Irma:

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• The canal east of The Preserve (where the city wants to dump the stormwater that lands on the new road) was cresting. 

• The walking path adjacent to the canal was also flooded.

• When the new road is in place, storms of that magnitude could trigger serious widespread flooding.​

• We have experienced two storms in recent years that exceeded the 25-year storm criteria by a wide margin.

 

Speaking "truth to power", a city official candidly admitted "… if we get 150-year storms like we've been experiencing now and again, then the water is going to go to where it tries to go just naturally".

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​After further discussion, it was agreed that before beginning the road design, the city would undertake a preliminary design of a stormwater system to verify the road could be built without increasing the flood risk. See next page for discussion of this approach, which I call Design #1.