Challenge
After analyzing recurring flooding in a Longboat Key neighborhood, our team designed an elevated roadway to improve consistent mobility for residents’ cars and emergency vehicles. However, this project required communication and agreements with nearly 50 adjacent property owners whose yards would be impacted.
Solution
The project team and client leveraged SMARTS, a program management platform, to organize documentation, visuals, and up-to-date site plans for each property owner. Additionally, the team used SMARTS as a communication tool for sharing information with all property owners and also communicating directly with individuals.
Impact
Months before construction, nearly 60% of property owners had already joined the elective SMARTS program.
Currently, the team continues to use SMARTS to communicate with stakeholders and manage information—supporting a holistic project view that brings the design team, client, and community together.
The Challenge
To promote the safety and welfare of residents, the Town of Longboat Key partnered with Kimley-Horn to analyze a recurring flooding situation and identify solutions.
A barrier island off the coast of Florida, Longboat Key has a low-elevation roadway that experiences frequent flooding. For 2,000+ feet of roadway, there are only two stormwater inlets and one outfall pipe. The road itself is also a peninsula, with homes on either side and canals with low sea walls behind both sides of the road. This street section services nearly 50 homes and can acquire more than a foot and a half of flooding based on tide conditions, making emergency vehicle passage and general mobility unpredictable.
Our team determined that elevating the road could protect it from king tides and make it consistently passable. However, this solution would require us to tie back into each individual property so that water drains toward the road rather than into adjoining yards. Our team needed a way to coordinate and communicate with approximately 47 different property owners and provide them with site-specific information and right-of-way agreements.
Our Solution
To efficiently communicate with impacted property owners throughout the drainage and resilience effort, the project team used Kimley-Horn’s SMARTS program.
SMARTS helps users store, track, organize, and search for essential project data—and it is particularly effective for projects like the Longboat Key roadway elevation that need a programmatic approach to information management. The platform also offers individualized messaging options to support visible, on-time communication with stakeholders.
With the SMARTS portal, each property owner has access to agreements, information on grading impacts and project status, and communication functions related to their specific site. The portal is also accessible to the client and the project team, permitting cohesive communication and allowing all users to exchange photos, graphics, and other assets. SMARTS also offers privacy by only allowing property owners to see their site’s information and not their neighbor’s portal.
The Impact
Currently, nearly 60% of residents are participating in the elective SMARTS program, and the door is open for more engagement as construction begins in late 2025.
In addition to facilitating right-of-way agreements and property negotiations, SMARTS operates like a digital filing cabinet that helps everyone stay up to date with the most recent information. Without this program, the team would need to invest extensive time in document management and individualized communication—and SMARTS provides a right-sized solution to the project’s programmatic needs.
Kimley-Horn and the Town of Longboat Key are continuing to utilize SMARTS throughout the remaining design process and into the coming construction phase. Additional enhancements to the program, including email notifications about status changes, are anticipated to further enhance the user experience in the future. Through using this data-driven program to communicate targeted information to stakeholders, the team and the community can make strategic decisions to help the roadway elevation proceed successfully.
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