{"id":1355,"date":"2026-05-22T10:04:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T10:04:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tampamovingjournal.com\/?p=1355"},"modified":"2026-05-22T10:04:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T10:04:18","slug":"st-pete-beach-neighborhood-explores-living-shorelines-as-a-natural-alternative-to-seawalls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tampamovingjournal.com\/?p=1355","title":{"rendered":"St. Pete Beach neighborhood explores \u201cliving shorelines” as a natural alternative to seawalls"},"content":{"rendered":"

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.<\/strong> – <\/span>As hurricane season approaches, a St. Pete Beach neighborhood is testing a different approach to protecting waterfront property \u2014 one that swaps concrete for nature.<\/p>

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The project in the Vina Del Mar neighborhood, behind the Don Cesar, is part of an effort looking at whether more private homeowners can adopt “living shorelines” instead of traditional seawalls.<\/p>

What are living shorelines?<\/h2>
<\/div>

Dig deeper:<\/p>

Living shorelines use natural materials like marsh grasses, mangroves, oyster reefs, rocks and other native coastal features to absorb wave energy and reduce erosion, while also creating habitat for marine life and improving water quality.<\/p>

“Instead of a seawall, think about what the coast looked like before human intervention,” said Maya Burke, assistant director of the Tampa Bay Estuary Program. “That means things like marsh grasses and oyster reefs and seagrass meadows, mangroves. That\u2019s a true living shoreline.”<\/p>

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n <\/div>

Local governments across Tampa Bay have already installed living shoreline projects on public property, but experts say private homeowners represent the next major opportunity because residents own much of Florida\u2019s coastline.<\/p>

Burke said the project is focused on understanding why more homeowners haven\u2019t made the switch.<\/p>

“We don\u2019t really know what it is that\u2019s stopping people from building living shorelines,” Burke said. “Is it simply a knowledge gap? Do they have concerns? Are they worried that they will be too expensive or they won\u2019t protect their property?”<\/p>

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Project leaders say some of the biggest barriers may be the upfront engineering, design and permitting work requiring steps that can be more complicated than simply replacing an aging seawall.<\/p>

A grant of less than $100,000 is helping fund design and permitting work for the St. Pete Beach project.<\/p>

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n <\/div>

Burke said the project is also exploring whether neighbors could work together through neighborhood associations or local governments to share resources and reduce some of those early costs.<\/p>

What’s next:<\/p>

Supporters say living shorelines aren\u2019t just environmentally beneficial; they can also help protect waterfront property during storms.<\/p>

Burke pointed to projects already installed across the Tampa Bay region.<\/p>

“The contractor that\u2019s working on this project has installed tens of living shorelines throughout the region,” Burke said. “Of the 11 public projects that he\u2019s worked on, none of them failed during hurricanes Helene or Milton.”<\/p>

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As hurricane season approaches, a St. Pete Beach neighborhood is testing a different approach to protecting waterfront property \u2014 one that swaps concrete for nature.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1352,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[135,144],"tags":[137,145],"class_list":["post-1355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-environment","category-st-petersburg","tag-environment","tag-st-petersburg"],"yoast_head":"\nSt. Pete Beach neighborhood explores \u201cliving shorelines" as a natural alternative to seawalls - Tampa moving journal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/tampamovingjournal.com\/?p=1355\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"St. Pete Beach neighborhood explores \u201cliving shorelines" as a natural alternative to seawalls - 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