PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — A group of Pinellas County lawmakers began the legislative session by throwing their support behind a House Memorial that aims to bring federal attention to the county’s beaches.
House Memorial 1411 was filed by Rep. Lindsay Cross and urges Congress to direct the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to amend its easement policy for coastal shore protection projects.
Historically, the Army Corps would complete beach renourishment and sand replacement projects on a rotating cycle and work their way through many of Pinellas County’s beaches.
A policy change by the Army Corp stated that in order for renourishment to continue, every beach front homeowner would have to sign easements allowing public access to their property.
Pinellas County has been contacting residents for years in hopes of getting every homeowner on board, but says getting 100% of the required signatures has proven impossible.
“If after Idalia people are still saying no… they’re not going to say yes,” said Kelli Hammer Levy, public works director for Pinellas County.
Levy says in stretches of Pinellas County the dunes are completely gone.
She says because renourishment was skipped, there was no berm or sand to protect the dunes during storms, so they have completely withered away, leaving homes and Gulf Boulevard vulnerable.
“In 30 years of history, it has not hit the dune until now,” Levy said. “That’s because we did not have an adequate berm in place and Idalia just hit… the timing, the serge, the tide.”
The next step for Pinellas County is to move forward with permitting and finding an engineering firm to restore roughly 12 miles of coastline. Levy says it’s a project that could take a couple of years to put in motion and will cost roughly $82 million.
“We are working on designing our own project and permitting our own project so we can essentially come in and build the Army Corps project because we know they’re not coming,” she said.
Levy says she’s thankful her local legislators are working to take this to the next level.
“The reason I filed House Memorial 1411 right at the beginning of session is because we have an opportunity to send a message to congress to tell the Army Corp of Engineers to go back to the way they used to do things,” said State Rep. Lindsay Cross. “Where they were more cooperative… worked more closely with the local partner.”
Levy says Hurricane Idalia was responsible for much of the damage, and in some spots completely shaved off the dunes. She fears what will happen should a similar storm hit before the beach can be renourished.
“It was 100 miles off the coast and it was like a blade just sliced it right off,” she said.