Adaptive Stormwater Management Planning for the City of Groveland, Florida Downtown Redevelopment
By Susan M. Woodbery, PE TEAM Engineering, LLC
The City of Groveland is located in West Central Florida within the Green Swamp. In 1972, the 322,000-acre Green Swamp Wilderness Preserve was designated as an Area of Critical Concern to protect the area from uncontrolled development. Protecting the Green Swamp is vital to protecting the quality and quantity of Florida’s underground aquifer, a primary source of water supply in the region.
The City of Groveland is currently planning redevelopment of their downtown area to coincide with the redesign of Highway 50 that currently runs through the middle of downtown. To expedite redevelopment efforts, the City commissioned a detailed stormwater master plan that provided solutions to existing flood-prone areas and designed a regional stormwater management system from the downtown redevelopment area. Construction and permitting of a regional stormwater management system provides incentive to developers - they will not go through the lengthy stormwater permitting process required in an Area of Critical Concern, and on-site stormwater management for each developed parcel is not required.
Stormwater Master Plan tasks included: • review of existing stormwater studies and flooding complaints; • perform field survey of stormwater infrastructure; • prepare existing condition stormwater model to evaluate duration and peak stages of flooding; • meet with City officials to verify model flood predictions; • develop adaptive solutions for flooding and water quality treatment; and • prepare stormwater models to evaluate the effectiveness of proposed solutions.
Challenges of developing a regional stormwater management system in an area where depth to groundwater in some areas is less than two feet and the planning of cost effective solutions will be discussed.
