The Cost Of "Resilience" In Miami Beach Is A Carbon Tax By Any Other Name - Guess How It's Going
The City of Miami Beach is getting deluged with resident complaints over its effort to keep its roads from flooding. Faced with rising sea levels, the beachfront city that sits between Biscayne Bay and the Atlantic Ocean has raised 11 miles of roads from a few inches to 2.5 feet since 2017. Miami Beach hopes to raise a further 90 miles of roadway by 2050, when sea levels are expected to be 14 to 30 inches higher than they are today.
Some residents and businesses say the project has improved conditions in flood zones in their neighborhoods. But others say that the water that is being diverted from the elevated roads is winding up in their yards and living rooms. The outcry has led to lawsuits and delays in the project as some property owners have denied the city the access it needs to move forward. “There’s definitely some competing interests,” said Eric Carpenter, Miami Beach deputy city manager.
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The city planned in 2017 to raise roads and install pumps in one high-end residential Miami Beach neighborhood, La Gorce, where some mansions go for upward of $10 million. But residents pushed back and the $125 million project was shelved altogether. A $105 million project in the nearby West Avenue neighborhood is five years behind schedule, and now the construction company that won the contract is suing the city to terminate.
To begin construction on West Avenue, some 175 property owners would need to sign “harmonization agreements” that allow contractors to connect the raised roads with the private properties either through ramps, stairs or other means, depending on the difference in elevation. To complicate matters further, property owners in the City of Miami Beach are on the hook for some of the costs associated with neighborhood projects, which could be as high as $15,000 per property.
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https://climatecrocks.com/2022/06/21/in-miami-raised-streets-for-some-mean-raised-taxes-flooded-yards-for-others/#more-75477
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