Seawall & Bulkhead Guide: Newburyport, Massachusetts

No Named Seawall or Bulkhead Project Was Confirmed for Newburyport

Targeted research into Newburyport's shoreline infrastructure did not turn up a specific, dollar-figured, town-tracked seawall, bulkhead, or revetment project — not along the Merrimack River downtown waterfront, where four marinas and more than 500 slips operate under the Newburyport Marinas umbrella, and not along Newburyport's own residential frontage on Plum Island. That absence is notable precisely because Newburyport is a compact, water-heavy city — 2.2 of its 10.6 square miles are water — sitting where the Merrimack River meets the Atlantic, with a documented Zone A high-risk flood area covering roughly 1,517 acres citywide, per the city's 2022 Multi-Hazard Mitigation Plan.

What this research did find instead were two distinct, real, currently active shoreline projects that are not hardening projects in the traditional seawall-and-riprap sense: a downtown park redesign that removed waterfront parking to build view-berms rather than a wall, and a Plum Island buyout program that removes homes from the shoreline rather than protecting them in place. Both are covered below. Anyone evaluating a specific waterfront or near-river parcel in Newburyport should ask the city's Conservation Commission directly whether that stretch of shoreline is covered by any hardening structure, its condition, and who maintains it, rather than assuming a seawall exists just because the city sits on the water.

Market Landing Park: A Waterfront Redesign, Not a Hardening Project

Newburyport undertook a $6 million remodel of Market Landing Park along the Merrimack River downtown, removing hundreds of waterfront parking spaces — the east lot cut from 176 to 109 spaces, the west lot from 80 to 49 — to expand green space, build berms for water viewing, and connect bike paths. Construction fencing went up in August 2023, with phase-one completion projected for spring 2024. This is a landscaping and public-realm project, not a seawall or bulkhead: the berms described in reporting are built for viewing the water and shaping green space, not documented as flood-control or wave-armor structures, and this research found no engineering claim that they function as one.

The project was and, as of the most recent reporting found, remained genuinely contentious: downtown merchants and business owners strongly opposed the loss of waterfront parking, with one owner saying it had "crushed" business, while city leaders — including council president Heather Shand — and urban planners supported the pedestrian-friendly redesign, arguing a new 200-car garage built blocks away would offset the loss. As of a September 2023 Boston Globe/Boston.com report, the dispute was unresolved and business owners remained unconvinced of the long-term benefit. This research did not find a 2024–2026 follow-up confirming whether foot traffic recovered or the garage offset the parking loss — a build agent or reader should check for a current resolution before treating this as settled.

Newburyport's Plum Island Shoreline: A Buyout Program, Not a Seawall

Plum Island's northern residential village — including the Reservation Terrace neighborhood, with its numbered streets — sits administratively inside Newburyport's own city limits, at zip code 01950, distinct from the causeway/bridge (which is in the neighboring town of Newbury) and the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge (also mostly Newbury). This page covers only Newburyport's own piece of that story: the city government's direct, currently unfolding response to storm and flood damage on Reservation Terrace, not the island's broader ecology or refuge narrative.

Three Reservation Terrace homes — 15 63rd Street, 8 64th Street, and 12 64th Street — suffered storm and flood damage and entered a FEMA Hazard Mitigation Grant Program buyout process beginning around 2022. On June 24, 2024, the Newburyport City Council voted 9–1 to approve $143,535 in city funding as the required 10% local match toward one property's buyout, with FEMA covering the remaining roughly $1.3 million; Ward 1 Councilor Sharif Zeid cast the dissenting vote. Homeowner Lee McLaughlin's buyout closed in October 2025 — nearly three years after the initial offer — for $1 million, with her home scheduled for demolition in spring 2026 and the land to be restored to sand dune. She described the process as "frustrating at times" but said "it was definitely worth it." A third owner, Stanton Sacks, declined a roughly $750,000 offer, calling it about half his property's actual value; other Reservation Terrace residents reportedly preferred beach restoration or jetty projects over retreat.

That last detail matters directly for anyone researching seawalls or bulkheads on Plum Island: the residents who wanted a jetty or beach-restoration project instead of a buyout did not get one, at least as of the most recent reporting found (December 2025). The city's confirmed, funded, in-progress response on this stretch of shoreline is managed retreat — buying out and removing homes — not construction of a wall, revetment, or jetty. This research did not confirm the spring 2026 demolition outcome or whether Sacks or other holdout owners have since settled; that remains an open, unresolved question as of the most recent source found.

Massachusetts Coastal Regulation: The Framework That Would Apply Here

Nothing found in this research suggests Newburyport sits outside the standard Massachusetts coastal-permitting structure. The city's Conservation Commission is ordinarily the first stop for shoreline work: it administers the state Wetlands Protection Act and issues the local Order of Conditions required for construction, repair, or alteration near coastal wetlands, banks, dunes, and flood zones — which would cover any seawall, revetment, or bulkhead proposal on a Newburyport parcel, whether along the Merrimack River downtown or on the city's Plum Island frontage.

The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) oversees that wetlands process at the state level and separately administers Chapter 91, the state waterways licensing law, which can apply to structures built in or over tidelands — directly relevant to any dock, bulkhead, or marina-adjacent structure along Newburyport's working Merrimack River waterfront. The Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management (CZM) plays a statewide coastal-policy and grant-funding role rather than issuing routine individual construction permits. Because the FEMA buyout on Reservation Terrace involves federal Hazard Mitigation Grant Program funds, that specific program also routes through FEMA and, in Massachusetts, the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency (MEMA); the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers can become involved in larger shoreline or navigation-channel projects depending on location and funding source. None of this is confirmed as applied to a specific future Newburyport hardening project — it is offered as the general framework any such project would route through.

Flood Zones and the Lower Artichoke Dam: What the City Has Published

Per the city's own 2022 Multi-Hazard Mitigation Plan, Zone A (high-risk flood areas) covers roughly 1,517 acres of Newburyport, Zone X (moderate-risk) covers roughly 94 acres, and approximately 19 acres of residential land lies within a floodplain area. The plan identifies hurricanes, nor'easters, and tropical storms as the primary hazards, with storm-surge modeling and historical hurricane and tropical-storm tracks mapped within it. It also flags a specific, concrete infrastructure vulnerability worth noting on a page about hardening and flood defense generally: the Lower Artichoke dam's spillway sits approximately 3 feet lower than FEMA's 100-year flood elevation. That is a dam-spillway vulnerability, not a seawall or bulkhead issue, but it is the kind of citable engineering gap the city itself has documented, and it belongs in the same conversation about where Newburyport's flood defenses currently do and do not measure up to modeled flood elevations.

This research did not extract specific named-storm damage totals for Newburyport proper from the plan excerpt available, nor did it confirm a current, parcel-level FEMA flood-zone letter (such as AE or VE) for any specific downtown or Plum Island address beyond the citywide acreage figures above. A build agent or reader with a specific property in mind should pull the full 2022 Hazard Mitigation Plan PDF directly from the City of Newburyport's website, or query FEMA's Flood Map Service Center, rather than assume a citywide figure applies to one parcel.

What This Page Cannot Tell You

This page does not name a specific seawall, bulkhead, or revetment project for Newburyport, because none was confirmed in this research, downtown or on Plum Island. It does not state a parcel-specific FEMA flood zone letter, a permitting fee, a typical construction cost, or an approval timeline for a Newburyport property — none of those were confirmed, and private coastal-hardening costs vary enormously by wall length, foundation type, site access, and existing condition at a given parcel.

It also does not confirm the final spring 2026 outcome of the Lee McLaughlin home demolition on Reservation Terrace, whether Stanton Sacks or other holdout owners have since accepted a buyout offer, individual marina addresses or per-facility slip counts among the four Newburyport Marinas group facilities, or a 2024–2026 resolution of the Market Landing Park parking dispute. None of these gaps are filled in here with a guess; each is a live, unresolved question as of the most recent sources found.

Practical Takeaways for a Newburyport Waterfront Buyer or Owner

If you are evaluating a property along the Merrimack River downtown, near Market Landing Park, or on Newburyport's own stretch of Plum Island, do not assume a seawall or bulkhead protects a given parcel just because the city sits on the water or because other Massachusetts coastal towns have documented hardening projects. Confirm directly with the City of Newburyport Conservation Commission whether any hardening structure exists near a specific property, its condition, and who is responsible for its maintenance — and, for a Plum Island parcel specifically, ask whether the property has been offered or considered for the FEMA buyout program, since that is the city's current, active, funded response to shoreline risk on Reservation Terrace.

If you are considering repairing or building a seawall or bulkhead on your own Newburyport parcel, expect the project to route through the Conservation Commission under the Wetlands Protection Act, potentially MassDEP Chapter 91 waterways licensing, and possibly CZM, FEMA, MEMA, or U.S. Army Corps of Engineers involvement depending on funding source and location. This page does not estimate what that would cost for your property; contact a licensed Massachusetts coastal engineer and the City of Newburyport directly for current, parcel-specific guidance, and ask specifically for the property's FEMA flood zone designation before budgeting or making an offer, since this research found no parcel-level figures for Newburyport addresses.