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Jacksonville City Council discussing $20M project for San Marco

SAN MARCO, Fla. — San Marco was just one of many areas of Jacksonville plagued with severe flooding amid recent hurricanes and tropical storms. Now, improvements in the form of a $20 million state grant could be on the way.

Jacksonville City Council voted to push forward Bill 2022-0838 today, which would add a storm water drainage pump to La salle Street in San Marco near downtown Jacksonville. This would be the third such pump in the San Marco neighborhood, joining two already existing ones. The $20 million grant from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection would also go toward inspecting, maintaining and repairing the two existing pumps as needed.

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“I think a lot of people own the homes in this area and it would be a huge help to the homeowners and people that live in this area that have dealt with it for so many years,” says local San Marco resident Anna Benson.

Following Hurricane Ian back in September, the streets of San Marco were completely flooded, with videos of people kayaking through residential streets surfacing.

“Basically [the] whole block up-down San Marco Boulevard created me and my pup here a whole island,” San Marco resident Roger Griffen recalls. “So I couldn’t leave, go anywhere, get food, or anything for quite a while.”

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Flooding has been a long-standing issue in the area. Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry’s office says it’s largely due to the area’s geography.

“San Marco’s geography is shaped like a bowl, which means that it is very difficult for rainwater that collects in the middle of the neighborhood to flow out to the river,” his office explained in a statement.

The bill still faces two City Council committees on Tuesday, Dec. 6, before the entire City Council votes on the bill a week later. A two-thirds majority is needed to pass the bill, but a City Council member tells Action News Jax that lawmakers expect it to pass without much opposition.

More information on the bill can be found here.

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