brittany bay park plans unveiled

Area residents got their first glimpse at plans for a living seawall in Brittany Bay Park (6444 Indian Creek Drive) that will increase resiliency for the park, provide for a robust and diverse natural habitat, and create educational/observation areas for the community. The seawall at each end of the park will be rehabilitated and capped, but in the middle, the wall will be brought into the park, creating a new wetland habitat over the old seawall with observation areas. Betsy Wheaton, the City’s Environment and Sustainability Director (now Chief of Staff to the Mayor), said the City plans to protect existing mangroves and create a mangrove habitat. Some trees may need to be removed, she said, but the goal is to keep the canopy and relocate old trees or plant new ones. (No, the orange ribbons around almost all of the trees do not indicate planned removal! They are part of a tree survey conducted in the park.) The proposal will be presented to the Design Review Board at its March 7^th meeting. You may comment at the meeting or send comments to Lauren Firtel.