“We looked at Long Beach, and the focus of our proposal was to look at how to prevent back-bay flooding — Long Beach was one of the hardest-hit areas in the entire Sandy-affected region, primarily due to flooding from the bay,” Theodore said. “The North Park has significant critical infrastructure that is currently unprotected, and there are a lot of people who live in the North Park who suffer [in] everyday rain events. The smart barrier will protect critical infrastructure and protect residents.”

Last week, Schnirman wrote a letter to Donovan expressing his support for the Interboro project on behalf of the city, and urged HUD to select the proposal. Schnirman and Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano also appeared before the competition jury in Manhattan, where they addressed issues unique to Long Beach and the South Shore.

“We’ve had a robust dialogue with the team from Interboro about what is feasible for Long Beach, and they’ve brought some good, innovative best practices to the table,” Schnirman said. “And their approach to combine green infrastructure and protection for the coastline with opportunities for economic development, recreational and housing opportunities seems like a good fit, and is consistent with the planning and community engagement efforts that have gone on in Long Beach over a period of years and recently.”

The jury is expected to name the funding winners this month. If selected, Theodore said, the Interboro project could take approximately four years to complete. “I thought our presentation went very well,” she said. “We made a case for a need and vulnerability for the south shores of Long Island.”

‘Living with the Bay’ strategies include:

1. A dike landscape along the bayshore to protect the critical infrastructure as well as the most vulnerable neighborhood of Long Beach. Combined with a small levee in the median of Magnolia Boulevard and the existing elevation of Long Beach Boulevard and Park Avenue, the dike would complete the first protective compartment. This new open space resource also includes a new marina and would connect to the existing city park to the west. The long-term goal is to create an accessible dike landscape along the entire bayshore.

2. A freshwater landscape behind the dike to create open space and provide space for water storage, infiltration and purification. While some of the infrastructure behind the dike would remain in place for the foreseeable future, Interboro proposes relocating or consolidating some of the other infrastructure.

3. In conjunction with the dike landscape, Interboro proposes building protected housing to replace some of the most vulnerable public housing and creating an elevated site for mixed-use development near the newly created open space amenities and the train station.

4. Once a planned ocean outfall pipe for the Bay Park Sewage Treatment plant is in place, the sewage from Long Beach could be treated in Bay Park and the Long Beach sewage treatment plant could be decommissioned. The site of the current treatment plant would become available for new uses. As part of its project, Interboro proposes the construction of a sewage return pipe from Long Beach to Bay Park and a pumping station on the site of the current Long Beach sewage treatment plant. As the pumping station requires the installation of power generators, a small resilience center could be added that could take advantage of the power generation.