North Miami is Creating a Unique Flood Prevention Park

When you need to solve a problem, two heads – or more – are much better than one. That's why the city of North Miami and the Van Alen Institute, a design nonprofit, opened a global competition in April 2019 to re-imagine residential properties in the city that are built on low lying land and prone to flooding.

The sea level is rising, and South Florida is starting to feel the effects especially as hurricanes in the area are becoming more severe. That's why Florida appointed a Chief Science Officer to help tackle the environmental problems it is facing. Creative solutions may be the key to offering solutions that will preserve the city's quality of life.

“Dealing with those challenges when people are occupying those spaces means a drain on flood insurance and means rerouting resources from areas of need to restore these homes,” said Otosi. “So, the city is really trying to think proactively about how to prevent those challenges.”

The winning proposal, announced on July 22, 2019, is for the Good Neighbor Park that was submitted by Department Design Office to transform what was a single-family home that continually flooded into a community space that will also function as a basin to help combat flooding and keep other properties dry in the residential area.

The park addresses two critical concerns that arose during community discussions about the space, according to a news release from the Van Alen Institute. To help prevent flooding, a pipe and basin system will allow storm water into a retention pool to keep water out of the surrounding homes.

The park will also include native plants including pine rockland, coastal marsh, sawgrass marsh, and marsh prairie to showcase the different ecosystems of the area that were lost due to development.

The Department Design Office team is comprised of landscape architects, urban designers, artists, and planners. The team has been awarded $80,000 to finish the design and implement it as a pilot program. The ribbon cutting on the new park will be held in early December 2019.

“Because many of these lots, and the pilot site specifically, are within residential areas, they have the potential to give back to the community in a meaningful way - to be a good neighbor,” said Department Design Office.

“I think that this is an opportunity to create sites that simultaneously reduce risk, provide community gathering places, as well as grow public awareness,” Maggie Tsang, the co-founder of Department Design Office told Fast Company.

Because infrastructure is typically buried and unseen, the new park offers, “a chance to change that narrative,” she said. “And to really create an opportunity to make things visible and register that change on a day-to-day basis and more broadly grow environmental consciousness.”

If the pilot park proves to be successful, it can be implemented in other residential areas in North Miami, South Florida, and beyond. Innovative new land use may be able to save homes that would otherwise be lost to storms and flooding due to climate change.

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