What the Reef Balls Off Lassing Park Have Been Doing Since 2022

"Our living shorelines performed as we hoped and expected."

Serra Herndon, director of habitat restoration at Tampa Bay Watch, told Bay Soundings this in December 2024, after Helene and Milton. She listed Lassing Park as one of the group's two "triumphs." The same article described the park as a "poster child" for living shorelines. Its photo shows trees still standing at the north end and the south end still eroding.

For Tropical Shores, Lassing Park is the neighborhood's own waterfront. The Council of Neighborhood Associations places the neighborhood between Beach Drive SE, 22nd Avenue SE and Tampa Bay, and the park runs along that edge. If you walk it, you can see the difference between the two ends. The cause is about 700 feet of concrete, shell and cordgrass that volunteers set in place four and a half years ago.

The Engineering Is Sitting in Plain Sight

Most of what looks like rubble along the north end of the park was placed there by design. The City of St. Petersburg's project notice laid out the plan for roughly 700 feet of shoreline.

The low domes at the waterline are the reef balls. Each one has holes so water can pass through. Oysters attach to the shell, and the whole structure takes energy out of incoming waves before they reach the sand. Planted behind it is salt-marsh grass, including cordgrass, which holds the sediment in place.

Today the City's sustainability page lists Lassing as a completed partnership between St. Pete Parks & Recreation and Tampa Bay Watch. It still describes the project as roughly 700 feet treated with about 100 tons of fossilized shell and 792 reef balls.

Built by Hand, Mostly on Two Days

The City's notice first targeted spring 2023 for completion, but the work finished faster. Bay News 9 reported on April 21, 2022, that the project was nearly done and that the final pieces would go in on Earth Day. On April 22, Tampa Bay Watch and more than 100 volunteers put in 10 tons of oyster shell reef, 100 reef balls and 2,000 salt-marsh grasses, I Love the Burg reported a few days later.

The neighborhood came back that fall. The Old Southeast Neighborhood Association says Tampa Bay Watch, Old Southeast residents and other volunteers placed another 10 tons of oyster-shell bags on November 9, 2022, adding a second protective layer to the reef. The association also reported that sand and plants had started filling in around the reef balls and that the cordgrass was growing quickly.

The project was inexpensive for a 700-foot stretch of shoreline. Bay News 9 put the total at $116,547. Tampa Bay Watch grants covered most of it, Penny for Pinellas paid $24,960, and St. Pete Water Resources paid $28,200. The City tied the Water Resources share to a Florida Department of Environmental Protection consent order.

Then 2024 Tested It

Two and a half years later, the reef faced the strongest storms Tampa Bay had seen in decades. According to Bay Soundings, the north end of Lassing Park "looks as though it hadn't been hit with high winds and six to eight feet of storm surge," and its coastal marsh grasses were thriving even after being underwater. The southern section, which had no living shoreline, was "highly eroded."

Herndon told the publication that at Lassing, the protected areas held up with little visible damage, while neighboring unprotected areas "experienced significant impacts." The same article quoted Tom Ries, president of the Ecosphere Restoration Institute, saying the shorelines his group had assessed weathered the storms well, including the ones most exposed to surge and wind.

The edge of the reef marks where the erosion begins. The Bay Soundings account dates from December 2024. Since then, the City and Tampa Bay Watch have not announced any project to extend the reef south.

How the Rest of the Park Works

The shoreline is the most important feature at Lassing, but the park has some everyday rules. Here they are, from St. Pete Parks & Recreation and the City's St. Pete Paws page:

• Location and size. Beach Drive SE at 18th Avenue SE, with about 14.2 acres of green space.
• Hours. Open from 30 minutes before sunrise to 30 minutes after sunset.
• The beach. The City lists a beach as the park's one feature, and it says plainly that swimming is not permitted there.
• Dogs. City parks allow dogs on leashes no longer than six feet. Off-leash play is limited to fenced, designated dog parks, and dogs are not allowed on playgrounds or athletic fields.

The City tests the water at Lassing every Wednesday, along with its other monitored beach sites. The advisory threshold is Enterococci bacteria above 70 cfu per 100 mL. If a sample tests poor, the City retests the next day and issues an advisory only if the second test is also poor. In the City's report card covering January through June 2025, Lassing had 19 good samples, 5 moderate and 4 poor. That year water quality improved at every site except North Shore Beach and, to a lesser degree, Lassing. Before you wade in after a dog or a dropped paddle, check the current weekly results.

The Shoreline Has Been Rebuilt Before

The 2022 reef is the second big change to this shoreline. The Tampa Bay Times archive says that after storms and tides eroded the shore, fill was pumped offshore to reduce dangerous currents and onto the beach to make it wider.

The Times names the donor as Kentucky Judge John M. Lassing, who worked in the printing business in St. Petersburg and invested in other local real estate. The two histories disagree on both his name and the date of the gift. The Times says Lassing deeded the main part of the park to the City in 1926. The Waterfront Parks Foundation credits Judge Robert B. Lassing with a 1924 donation, lists more land added in 1926, 1944 and 1945, and says the park was dedicated on January 8, 1942.

The Annual Cleanup Is Also a Check on the Reef

Every spring, neighbors gather at the reef. The third annual OSE/VFW Day of Service took place on Saturday, May 2, 2026, starting at 9 a.m. across from 1511 Beach Drive, next to the restored shoreline. The Old Southeast Neighborhood Association's event page called it both a cleanup and a celebration of a restoration it described as successful. The St. Pete Innovation District listing named the City, Keep Pinellas Beautiful, Tampa Bay Watch, Old Southeast and the Waterfront Parks Foundation as partners. Several of those groups also built the reef, so the cleanup brings the original builders back to the site once a year.

The bigger question is the south end. On January 27, 2026, St. Petersburg launched a citywide Seawall Master Plan to assess city-owned seawalls, set priorities for upgrades and consider green infrastructure. The plan's public meetings were held on February 10 and 17, and the work so far is an inventory and map of the whole city. The public overview does not mention Lassing Park, and no south-end project has been announced. For now, the reef balls and cordgrass on the north end are the only part of this shoreline built to take a storm.

Brad Bess works with waterfront properties across St. Petersburg every week, and that work starts with the edge where the land meets the bay. If you own a waterfront home near Lassing Park and want to compare your seawall or shoreline with what's holding up nearby, Brad Bess can walk the property with you. Book Your Tour, and Brad will start the visit at your seawall.