Bay County Community Development Block Grant Funded Programs

SWCA has been contracted to provide environmental services for the three Bay County CDBG-funded programs listed below.

Redwood Avenue Drainage Improvements

The Redwood Avenue Drainage Improvement Project is funded as part of Rebuild Florida: Infrastructure Repair and Mitigation Program. Funding for this grant program is provided by the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity, Office of Disaster Recovery, and HUD’s National Disaster Resiliency Competition Program. The community bordering Panama City and Cedar Grove experiences flooding caused by the clogging and bottlenecking of a nearby stormwater culvert. This project involves abandoning and replacing 2000 linear feet of stormwater culvert to minimize future flood events. SWCA completed a HUD-compliant project-specific EA, which included a wetland delineation study to avoid wetland impacts and potential Section 404 Clean Water Act concerns. This project achieved AUGF in 2023.

Fountain Community Center

Bay County has proposed to construct the Fountain Community Complex to include facilities that will house a Community Recreational Center, a Sheriff’s sub-station, office and kitchen space, and a separate Fire station. These facilities are replacing buildings that were severely damaged or destroyed by Hurricane Michael. The County plans to use this facility during grey sky days as a hardened shelter for residents and first responders, and as a community/recreational center during blue sky days. SWCA completed the following tasks to support project funding and implementation: EA and Wetland and Waterbody Delineation. This project achieved AUGF in 2024.

Voluntary Home Buyout Program

This program has been designed to use HUD funding under the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity’s Rebuild Florida Program to purchase homes in flood-prone areas and return them to natural green space. Applicants participating in this program are receiving mortgage and Uniform Relocation Act financial assistance to move to houses outside of high-risk flood areas. SWCA has provided support by preparing a Tiered environmental review, allowing evaluation of specific issues related to the program to be cleared at the Broad Review level while establishing the policies, standards, or processes to be followed in the site-specific review.