ST. PETE BEACH, Fla. — Residents and business owners on St. Pete Beach are demanding that leaders get a more effective process when it comes to issuing permits to repair properties.

What You Need To Know

  • St. Pete Beach residents, employees from the restaurants and hotels, along with business owners, were all represented Tuesday at city hall

  • They said they had a simple message: speed up the process when it comes to permitting

  • the city says storm related permits are more complicated than a typical repair permit

People said they were so frustrated when they headed to city hall Tuesday night. They didn't call it a protest, but they were definitely making demands.

Residents, employees from the restaurants and hotels, along with business owners, were all represented at Tuesday's gathering. They walked from a post office down to city hall with a simple message — speed up the process.

Waterfront views and a long list of things to do. It’s the same story for so many business owners on St. Pete Beach. And Matthew Vario’s story is no different.

“Just imagine not only losing your job, but you’re continuing to pay into it, so I don’t have the income coming in. And then I have a lot of employees that not only lost their houses, but they’ve now lost their jobs,” said Vario.

He has had the doors on his bar, The Toasted Monkey, closed for months and they are waiting on the biggest ticket in town, permitting.

“We put permits in,” he said. “We’re actually two separate addresses. So, we put permits in for one address and we’re just now waiting to hear back from the city in hopes to get a permit soon so we can get open.”

“Soon” is a tricky timetable for people like Vario. Like a lot of home and business owners on St. Pete Beach, he said the city needs to speed up the process.

Spectrum News spoke with city officials about what residents are calling the slow permitting process.

“In the year prior to the storm, we received about 2,700 total permits, so in the time frame of the storm, we received 300 percent greater the number of permits that we did last year,” said St. Pete Beach Public Information Officer Marc Portugal.

He said the delays in getting permits are linked to a number of things like incomplete applications or more permits than they have the manpower to process.

“Storm related permits are more complicated than a typical repair permit because there are considerations such as the FEMA packet and the 50 percent rule,” said Portugal.

He said they’ve gotten 11 out of the 18 additional staff they requested from the state that would provide more building inspectors.

For people like Vario, it’s a process he’s hoping the city gets a grip on fast for the sake of the people who live and work there. Especially those gathering and demanding more from city leaders.

“It’s going to help us at least feel some hope. Whether it helps the city move along faster or not, at least we’ll have hope that we’re able to do something rather than just sitting in our flooded-out homes that are ripped apart,” Vario said.