Damage control

Coastal division to develop strategic plan

Before a judge considers legal filings charging Deerfield Beach is responsible for damage to Hillsboro Beach’s shoreline, Deerfield staff and officials met to discuss a strategic plan for the newly established Coastal and Waterways Divison.

“My concern with doing nothing is, at some point, it is not going to be an option ... we need to get creative and come up with ideas [for beach preservation] and make a decison before the powers that be make the decison for us,” said Mayor Bill Ganz.

Those powers will rest with Broward Circuit Court Judge David Haimes. A hearing will consider claims by Hillsboro Beach that cement walls Deerfield Beach built perpendicular to the shore decades ago, so-called “groins,” rob Hillsboro’s shore of sand and threatens town condominiums. Moreover, the filings charge, the groins permit require Deerfield to remedy resulting damage south of the groins, such as the milliondollar sand installations Hillsboro regularly requires.

So recently Deerfield officials met, perhaps ironically, at the Hillsboro Technology Center, not City Hall, and decided the Coastal and Waterways Divison will manage every aspect of the shorefront, from establishing prioities, to protecting the hard-bottom, to finding money for beach maintenance, and introducing resiliency - the ability to recover, should resisting beach erosion fail.

They talked of time-honored strategies like sand-retaining screens, a barrier wall or a planting of sand-retaining sea oats.

“I’m not crazy about a wall. Ideally, I’d love to keep it as it is,” Ganz said. “But in the future - the near future - that might not be feasible.”

Director of Public Affairs and Marketing Rebecca Medina Stewart put it more succinctly.

“A strategic plan will allow the city to be proactive on coastal issues,” she said, “[and] protect, conserve and enhance the city’s coastal, marine and environmental resources.”