July 19th Meeting

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.