INDIAN SHORES, Fla. — The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers met with Pinellas County leaders and residents at the Indian Shores Town Hall on Friday to address their concerns about the standoff over beach renourishment due to a lack of easements.

What You Need To Know

  • Col. James Booth from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Jacksonville office said federal dollars cannot be used to renourish private property

  • Booth said that's the reason the Corps needs 100% of the easements signed

  • Pinellas Commissioner Janet Long said she has asked the county attorney to look into possibly using eminent domain to secure the missing easements

  • Pinellas has applied for temporary emergency measures which would allow the county to renourish the beaches that were severely eroded by Hurricane Idalia

Col. James Booth from the Corps’ Jacksonville office said federal dollars cannot be used to renourish private property, which is the reason they need 100% of the easements signed before they can start pumping any sand onto the beaches.

Booth also said he would take another look at the easement language after many residents said the reason they didn’t sign was because of the words “perpetual” and “public access.”

“I really appreciated hearing from the public about the concerns of the language that’s in the perpetual easement,” he said. “A lot of folks are concerned about the public access comments that are in there and the terminology of perpetual.”

Indian Rocks Beach resident Gary Huggins, 66, said he regrets signing the easement in 2018.

“There’s a lot of us that did sign that want out, and we’re probably going to have to have legal come in,” he said. ‘We signed for renourishment to happen and it never happened.”

Huggins owns the vacation rental Beachfront Bliss Villas and said he collects more than $1 million in bed tax every year. He wants the county to use the bed tax money to take over the beach renourishment projects.

“If you put it onto a bed tax you could renourish the beach every year,” Huggins said. “You could become the best, prettiest beach in the United States.”

Huggins said the section of Indian Rocks Beach in front of his condos lost 18 feet of sand and a section of dunes to Hurricane Idalia.

“One more and everything is gone,” he said. “I’m on the high side right here.”

Pinellas Commissioner Janet Long said she has asked the county attorney to look into possibly using eminent domain to secure the missing easements. The Corps pays for two-thirds of beach renourishment projects.

The Sand Key project was scheduled to begin next year but since a little more than half of the residents have not signed the easement, it has been put on indefinite hold.

Booth said the Corps discovered three missing easements for the Long Key beach renourishment project, which was supposed to begin this year and it was also put on hold recently.

When residents said it was impossible to get all the easements signed, Booth pointed out that both Flagler County with 240 easements and Brevard County with 300 easements got it done and will receive sand. Booth said the last easement for Brevard County was ordered from a judge.

Pinellas Public Works Director Kelli Levy said she has applied for temporary emergency measures which would allow the County to renourish the beaches that were severely eroded by Hurricane Idalia. Levy said some of those beaches include Sunset Beach in Treasure Island, Pass-A-Grille in St. Pete Beach and Dan’s Island in Clearwater.