JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Jacksonville city leaders continue their work trying to tackle the ongoing flooding problems along Ken Knight Drive.
For years, residents living in flood-prone properties along the Ribault River have expressed frustration over floodwaters entering their homes, saying the problem occurs during serious weather events and typical Florida thunderstorms.
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This week, members of the city’s Finance and Neighborhoods, Community Services, Public Health, and Safety Committees met to discuss two bills aiming to allocate FEMA grant money and a city of Jacksonville match to acquire and demolish two flood-prone properties.
One property is on Ken Knight Drive North, the other is around the corner on Wrico Drive. Both homes are close to the Ribault River, one of which sits feet away from it. Timothy Washington and Trina Falih have lived across from one of the properties for 6 years.
“Water messes up a lot of things around here,” Falih said. “Vehicles, houses, everything.”
“When it floods, it floods,” Washington emphasized. “It’s one of those things where you’ve got to have a rowboat to get out.”
The homes are the second and third properties in Ken Knight Drive purchased through the city’s buyback program. According to the Emergency Preparedness Division, the program is designed to help neighbors who have experienced flooding move to an area on high ground that does not flood.
Once the city acquires the properties, the plan is to eventually tear them down and turn them into green spaces. According to the bills filed for each property, the funding to complete each project would come through FEMA grant money and a city of Jacksonville match.
Anne Coglianese is the city’s chief resilience officer and says the program is strictly voluntary, but understands there are challenges to encouraging people to participate in the buyout program. Overall, she said this is about safety.
“Ken Knight Drive is an area of Jacksonville that is chronically low-lying and chronically flooded,” Coglianese said. “Part of safe housing is that it’s not being chronically flooded. There are health outcomes that can be really compromised by the presence of flood water [like] residual mildew and mold and damage that can come from living in conditions that can be flooded.”
Coglianese went on to say turning the spots into green spaces will not only help mitigate the flooding problems but would be good for the neighborhood.
“A good friend and colleague who likes to say, this is taking a backyard problem and creating a front yard solution,” Coglianese said. “So a backyard problem for a resident experiencing the river rising into their property becomes a solution for the whole city as they become park spaces.”
While Falih and Washington say they’re not interested in a buyout program, they hope other feasible solutions are considered.
“I figure they could dredge or put a wall back there,” the couple said. “That’s what I think. That, or a wall, then there wouldn’t be that much flooding. There wouldn’t be no flooding at all.”
To learn more about the Ken Knight Drive buyback through the city of Jacksonville, visit: JaxReady - Mitigation
