Peacock Park is set for a climate resilience makeover — but not without controversy.
The $2 million shoreline stabilization project, championed by the City of Miami’s Office of Capital Improvements (OCI), comes with a $465,000 design and permitting price tag, no confirmed construction funding, and the planned removal of a row of mature palm trees from Coconut Grove’s iconic waterfront park.
After more than two years of planning, city officials are finalizing plans for a 450-foot-long, 12-foot-wide landscaped berm to act as a natural seawall. The berm, expected to reach at least six feet in height, is pitched as a hybrid vegetated berm system—a combination of clean fill, FRP sheet piles, riprap, and native vegetation.
The system is designed to stabilize the shoreline, absorb wave energy, and support intertidal habitat, while still maintaining public access to the water, city officials say. Construction is tentatively scheduled to start in July 2026 — pending permitting and secured funding.
But to date, only Phase I of the project — design and permitting – has been fully funded, thanks to a $156,600 grant from the Florida Inland Navigation District (FIND) and $307,980 from the City of Miami.
The unfunded construction phase, Phase II of the project, is estimated at around $1.6 million. City officials say they plan to apply for additional FIND grants and seek support from the National Fish & Wildlife Foundation.
But funding uncertainty aside, not everyone is thrilled by the city’s plans, or its use of taxpayer funds. “It’s a project that doesn’t compute,” says Bill Finan, a nearby resident active in the civic group Center Grove Neighbors.
Finan questions how a $1.6 million construction project should require design and permitting fees of roughly 30 percent of that amount, or about $465,000.
Florida-based consultants Metric Engineering and Cummins Cederberg are overseeing the design.
Finan also questions the value of a six-foot berm in an area already prone to flooding and which he argues will do little to stem a storm surge during a hurricane.
“Can you tell me how that structure will withstand that kind of pressure?” Finan asks. “So what it means is that you build the thing for a million bucks, but then you’ve got to repair it x number of times in 10 years or more.”
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Finan said city officials, including Miami District 2 Commissioner Damian Pardo, have largely ignored his repeated requests for details about the project, including a cost analysis.
The project, Finan and others note, also comes at a cost to the park’s tree canopy. A large row of palm trees by the shoreline will be removed, and the Amy Billig Meditation Garden will be pushed back to accommodate the berm’s construction. Officials say the exact number of trees to be removed has not been determined.
“Of course we want to fight climate change,” said Kyle Lochridge, a Grove resident who opposes the tree removal and has campaigned for stronger canopy protections citywide. “But we know that trees play a huge role in flood control and cooling. Yet we keep hacking them down.”
The mangrove trees, which line the water’s edge, will remain untouched, as will an elevated boardwalk that extends into the shallow bay waters.
Peacock Park is considered especially vulnerable to sea-level rise and storm surge—with up to 15 feet of flooding possible in a major storm, according to county data. The area was identified as a critical site by the city.
In an email to the Spotlight, Patricia Pocasangre, the city’s Office of Capital Improvements outreach coordinator, defended the project, citing nearby infrastructure including schools, a fire station, a library and evacuation routes.
The Miami District 2 commission office has announced plans for a public meeting to address waterfront-related issues, including this project, in September.
This story was originally published in the Coconut Grove Spotlight, a WLRN News partner.
