Hurricane Milton, Stormwater Management And A New City Park

I also want to extend my deepest gratitude to our first responders, especially the remarkable teams from our Police Department, Fire Rescue, Public Utilities, and Public Works for their work to prepare our city for the storm.

Our teams deployed a record 20 Stormwater Pumps throughout Hollywood to be ready to reduce any flooding. Our new High-Water Rescue Vehicles were placed on standby. Over 12,000 sandbags were distributed to our residents. City parking garages were made available for vehicle storage, essential equipment and teams were ready to respond at a moment’s notice. Throughout this period, our city communications team kept everyone informed via text messages, e-mails, voice alerts and social media.

I’m proud to say that while the forecasted rain and wind thankfully did not materialize due to the ultimate structure and trajectory of Hurricane Milton, our city’s level of preparedness for a windstorm has never been higher.

Thank you everyone for your resilience and cooperation. Together, we stand strong, ready to meet any future challenges.

As we continue to pray for our fellow Floridians who were in the catastrophic path of Hurricane Milton, below I am sharing some updates on our Stormwater Master Plan with Short-Term and Long-Term Flood-Prevention Projects that are being implemented to enhance Hollywood’s resilience for generations to come.

I’m also sharing below some great news about a $7.5 Million Federal Grant that we were awarded to assist us in creating what will be our newest green space and largest city-owned park.

Yours always,
Josh Levy Mayor of Hollywood

Implementing our Stormwater Master Plan

When more frequent “history-making” rainfall events are coupled with higher water tables, South Florida’s cities and counties understand that we must embark on large Infrastructure upgrades to shore up our region’s Stormwater Defenses.

All cities have Stormwater Management Systems that work to contain and control rain water in order to minimize flooding and enable the community to live through rain events with as little interruption to our daily lives as possible. In Hollywood, the Stormwater System includes: miles of Pipes, Channels, Ditches, Swales, Natural Waterways and Drainage Easements. It also includes: thousands of Manholes and Inlets, various Pumping Stations and Retention and Detention Basins.

Stormwater Systems always need maintenance and frequently need updating, especially when they no longer deliver an adequate level of service for a community experiencing changing climate conditions. The good news for us on this front in the City of Hollywood is that we recently completed a 2-year project that our City Commission embarked upon - to create a comprehensive Stormwater Master Plan for the city.

Following 2 years of engineering analysis, the plan provides us with a list of projects, street by street, neighborhood by neighborhood, enabling us to better address stormwater management throughout the city - with consideration to Flood Control, Water Quality Protection, Aquifer Recharge, Supply Conservation and Reuse Conservation, Operation and Maintenance Stormwater Utility Sufficiency, Long Term Financing, Community Acceptance, Adaptability, Resiliency, Fairness in execution and Sustainability.

To reach a better level of service for our city, the 20-year Stormwater Master Plan itemizes and recommends a selection of $980 Million to $1.9 Billion dollars of Infrastructure Improvement Projects, including the upgrading and addition of our Exfiltration Systems, Gravity Pipe Collection Systems and Inlets, Stormwater Pump Stations, Outfalls, Stormwater Gravity and Injection Wells, Storage and Detention Storage, Swales, Backflow Prevention Devices, Raise Seawalls/Shoreline Armoring, and Road Raising in conjunction with new collection systems.

Our next steps are to determine the near-term budget and select initial projects within the budget. We’ll also need to determine the city’s Long-Term Financing Plan and continue to pursue Regional, State and Federal Grants in parallel. The same need exists for the hopes of converting and connecting our many septic-tank neighborhoods to our City’s Sewer System for Proper Wastewater Treatment.

This is a top-most priority for our city and we will embark on these projects year-after-year to achieve the level of service goals that we desire for neighborhoods throughout our city. Below is an excerpt and example of 3 areas of focus. These same Capital Improvement Plans exist for all areas of our city east to west.

Federal Grant Awarded to Create a New City Park - Congratulations Hollywood

I am pleased to report that our city has been awarded a $7.5 Million Land and Water Conservation Fund Outdoor Recreation Legacy Partnership Program grant (ORLP) for the creation of Sunset Park. (This is the old and long closed-down 45-acre golf course property on the corner of Johnson Street and I-95, which we purchased in 2020 to create a new park for our city.)

The ORLP Program is a nationally competitive program that enables urban communities to create new outdoor recreation spaces, reinvigorate existing parks, and form connections between people and the outdoors.

The program focuses on voluntary conservation and restoration efforts to address the nature and climate crises, improve equitable access to the outdoors, and strengthen the economy.

This award represents the first of four grants that staff is actively pursuing to support the Sunset Park Project. More information about this exciting award and a contract for approval is forthcoming to the City Commission.

Established by Congress in 2014 and administered through the National Park Service, this program is processed through the Florida Department of Environmental Protection — and it's a great example of how the shared policy goals of our federal, state and local governments can result in a great outcome for a local community.

Thank you to everyone who worked hard on this, from our residents and city staff to our elected officials at the federal and local level. #TeamworkMakesTheDreamWork