- April 21, 2026
A long-awaited stormwater project in The Hammock off of Malacompra Road could begin construction in the coming months.
First Avenue in The Hammock has had flooding problems for years between Malacompra Road and the north end of First Avenue. Flagler County had completed a previous project in 2020 to fix the problems, but the drainage and flooding issues continued.
Now, Flagler County has completed the project’s design plans and is awaiting permit modification approval from the St. Johns River Water Management District before sending the project out to bid, project manager Richard Zion said during the April 20 Flagler County Commission meeting.
“They’re in dire need of these improvements,” Zion said of the First Avenue residents. “The design will make an impact to correct some of the conditions they’re experiencing over in that area.”
Zion said Flagler County should receive the approval from SJRWMD either this week or next.
“We anticipate being able to get that on the street and advertised for construction really soon,” he said.
The First Avenue drainage project is one of two major stormwater projects Flagler County is undertaking in The Hammock in 2026. The second is the design for the Malacompra Canal Restoration and Resilience project.
The Malacompra Canal project will improve the drainage of the canal’s existing 4,100 feet along Malacompra Road and replace the box culvert underneath State Road A1A with a larger culvert.
Zion said as Flagler County continues with the design portion of the project, the county is planning several community events to get residential feedback on the proposed project and design.
Overall, the canal improvements will cost around $12.4 million dollars, including construction costs, he said. The design and permitting has a $495,000 budget from American Rescue Plan Act funding. Design for the canal restoration is only 40% complete.
The county also finished cleaning out the box culverts at the Bay Drive Park ponds in The Hammock, and are performing ongoing stormwater infrastructure maintenance across Flagler County.
The list of identified stormwater projects across Flagler County is about 47 long, Zion said, but has a list of the top 10 unfunded priority projects. Those priority projects include three Rima Ridge infrastructure projects, followed by the Malacompra Canal restoration, several flooding infrastructure projects on the west side of Flagler County and one more project in The Hammock to improve flooding near Washington Oaks Gardens State Park and S.R. A1A.
The project list is largely unfunded, Zion said, but county staff are continuously looking for funding though different grant programs.
Zion said the Rima Ridge projects, which top the list, were decided as the priority based on flooding impact at the time the study was conducted in 2023. The county can come back and review the prioritized items to see if conditions have changed, he said.
“We continue to monitor these things over time. I think we should continue bringing this back annually, similar to our other work programs, so we can reevaluate and reprioritize as needed.”
Commission Chair Leann Pennington said she remembers the board authorizing a funding study in 2024 that was never commissioned to find what options are available to fund the Stormwater Projects. Stormwater needs to be a priority, she said, which is why the county needs to see what funding options are available.
“It went nowhere, but it needed to go somewhere,” Pennington said. “It needs funding desperately.”
