St. Pete Beach neighborhood explores 'living shorelines' as a natural alternative to seawalls

ST. PETE BEACH, Fla. - As hurricane season approaches, a St. Pete Beach neighborhood is testing a different approach to protecting waterfront property — one that swaps concrete for nature.

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.

What are living shorelines?

Dig deeper:

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.

"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’s a true living shoreline."

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’s coastline.

Burke said the project is focused on understanding why more homeowners haven’t made the switch.

"We don’t really know what it is that’s 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’t protect their property?"

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.

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

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.

What's next:

Supporters say living shorelines aren’t just environmentally beneficial; they can also help protect waterfront property during storms.

Burke pointed to projects already installed across the Tampa Bay region.

"The contractor that’s working on this project has installed tens of living shorelines throughout the region," Burke said. "Of the 11 public projects that he’s worked on, none of them failed during hurricanes Helene or Milton."