By: Lou Ellen Wilson
Recap of Board of Commissioners for Charlotte County special meeting held on July 19th – Agenda – Manasota Key/Don Pedro-Knights Island Beach Renourishment MSBU Commissioners unanimously approved the MSBU rates per the notice mailed to all property owners. (If you did not get same, please contact the County Commission Supervisor’s Office Total Cost approximately $25M – Funds to be provided as follows: State – 39% (funds have to be approved by the State Legislature) Charlotte County – 37% (already approved) Property Owners – 24% (All owners within EACH defined MSBU will be assessed a Recreational Use Fee plus owners with beach front property will have an additional assessment according to lot size and beach frontage – reference your notice for exact amount for your property. If you disagree with assessment calculation on your notice contact the Supervisor’s office) Monies collected for each MSBU will be NOT be co-mingled. Interesting Facts: a. Renourishment cannot move forward without State Funding – asked for resident’s support of the bill when it comes before the legislative session in January 2019. b.Sarasota County Commissioners have agreed to file a joint request with Charlotte County – making it a regional request, thus improve it chances of passing. c.Funds have been requested from the Federal Government but they are not available at this time d.Funding is for an 8 year period – if sand is washed away by a hurricane, based on the new studies/permits, FEMA will insure replacement of all sand in accordance with the approved design. e.Renourishment is scheduled for December 2019 thru May 2020. f.Dredging of Stump Pass is NOT included in the proposed MSBU funding. g.Included in the funding is $7 million for the Federal requirement that of an area of hard bottom in the gulf be renourished with sand – this requires the “planting” of lime stone blocks. h.Private versus Public Ownership of Beach: In February 2019 an Erosion Control Line (ECL) will be established on all beach front properties – All property in front of the line to the water will be for public use/all property behind the line will be owner’s private property. Beach renourishment sand will only be placed in the public portion. There will be notice of a public meeting regarding the new ECL before it is established/approved. Questions from Manasota Key Residents: Approximately 40 – main topics a.Private versus public use of the beach – including parking issues. b.Request that business pay a larger portion of the funding versus home owners c.Request that surrounding business in the area; i.e., marinas/restaurants on the east side of the intercoastal waterway be included in the MSBU Questions from Knights Island/Don Pedro Residents: a. Request that sand for the renourishment be dredged from the canals/lagoon to save money – explained that this sand did not match sand currently on the beach per Federal requirements for size, color and quality. b.Thornton Key property owners requested they be exempted from the MSBU as they did not have access to the beach. Request that non-buildable lots be exempt as well as lots owned by the Conservancy By Craig Baresel
Many of the P.I.E. board members attended the July 19 meeting. The meeting started with a presentation of a summary recap of the PARC report. I couldn't find the summary but here is a link to the PARC website. http://www.parccoastal.com/manasota If you scroll down after opening the link you can click on Final Funding Plan which will give you the full report that the presenter summarized out of. Big picture the state will pay about 39% (ASSUMING people and county lobby the state to get our share), the county general funds will pay about 37%, and residents / businesses in the MSBU's will pay 24%. Our payments can be made over an 8 year period or with a discount for up front payments. Actual beach properties will have a higher assessment. (covered in letter we got from county) Another item that could affect us down the road is the ECL line that will determine average mean high tide will be determined from past info and finalized Feb 2019. This plays into the new state law regarding private property rights vs public beach. There obviously are some folks on Manasota that call the police on people walking on the beach/ the edge of their private property. A lot of residents primarily from Manasota spoke and many felt commercial businesses should pay a larger share. The counties argument was they do through the general funds for the state and county. Using dredged sand from our canals was brought up but the county engineer said it did not qualify because it was not an exact match for the beach sand. Realistic start time would be late 2019 and probably not until 2020. Bottom line is it was obvious the commissioners went through the motions of a public hearing but they had already made up their mind and approved the proposals presented unanimously with no changes. |
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