In 2009, the city released a coastal protection study conducted by the consulting firm Coastal Planning & Engineering Inc., which offered recommendations for implementing a revised federal storm-protection program that addressed those concerns.

City Councilman Mike Fagen said that he and other council members met with Army Corps officials in March, and said they wanted a project that included protection along the bay. “[The 2006] project … wasn’t going to include a bayfront element,” Fagen said. “They said to us that would set the whole project back a significant amount of time.”

LaCarrubba said that the Army Corps is now open to talking about protecting the bay, though that element may be initiated separately. “The bay component may not necessarily be a piece of the project that they’re talking about revisiting,” he said, “but it is something they want to start discussion on.”