Lake Maria Sanchez in St. Augustine | City of St. Augustine
Published on February 26, 2025 at 11:54 am
Free local news and info, in your inbox at 6 a.m. M-F. Sign up for the Jacksonville Today newsletter.
It’s a project that’s been on St. Augustine’s radar for more than a decade, and the city this week adopted a plan to work toward reducing flooding for a lake just south of the city’s core.
Lake Maria Sanchez was once an old wetland, and it’s particularly prone to flooding.
Jacksonville Today thanks our sponsors. Become one.
“Everything from the 200-acre area is draining to Lake Maria Sanchez, and the water has nowhere to go,” St. Augustine Chief Resilience Officer Jessica Beach told Jacksonville Today.
All it takes is the relatively common combination of a heavy rain and a high tide to push the overflowing water from the lake into the homes in Lincolnville and surrounding neighborhoods. Thanks to the topography of the city, the water also has a tendency to make its way downtown.
The city devised a solution to reduce the lake’s potential for flooding: install a pump at its southern tip on South Street and build a short seawall along the marsh that feeds into the lake.
Jacksonville Today thanks our sponsors. Become one.
But what has held up the city for years is that the seawall has to be constructed on private property, and city officials haven’t managed to bring several key property owners to the table to get the necessary access.
With that in mind, the St. Augustine’s City Commission unanimously approved a measure Monday night that allows, if necessary, for the city to use eminent domain to build the seawall.
It’s a measure the city doesn’t adopt lightly, Beach said, because the hope is still that the property owners will voluntarily grant the city the access it needs.
“We can achieve a substantial amount of flood protection … this will really help address that,” Beach said. “We’ve waited as long as we can. We’ve exhausted all options.”
The two-pronged initiative began last year as one of St. Augustine’s many flood mitigation projects. The first stage of the project centers on road improvements on Granada, Cordova and Bridge streets in St. Augustine’s downtown core. With state grant money under the city’s belt, construction of the stormwater and streetscape improvements is planned to begin next year.
That first segment of the project is meant to make downtown St. Augustine less likely to flood during run-of-the-mill rainstorms. The second stage, the seawall and pump station, look to address other types of flooding too.
It’s a project that Beach says wouldn’t have been able to get off the ground without the support of property owners who have been affected by flooding along Lake Maria Sanchez.
A number of those property owners attended the City Commission meeting Monday night to urge the city to move forward on the project.
Eileen Reeve lives a block from the marsh area that runs into Lake Maria Sanchez, and she spoke to the City Commission Monday night ahead of their vote. Reeve identified herself as one of several members of the Old City South Neighborhood Association who spoke that night.
“We have a great community here,” Reeve said, “and I don’t want any more of my neighbors to move away because of the flooding.”
Other residents shared stories about flooding on their own properties. Among them was a common request: to approve the measure to benefit the many residents who have been affected by flooding, even if it means going over the heads of the residents who have not provided the city access to their properties.
None of the property owners who may be affected by the city’s eminent domain spoke during the meeting Monday.
