Posted on May 24, 2018
By Carlos R. Munoz, Herald-Tribune
Lido Shores residents say they are frustrated after years of watching their lovely, quiet place on the beach washing away.
A protective dune that serves as the Sarasota island neighborhood’s buffer from the Gulf of Mexico has lost 15½ feet since 2016, according to a Sarasota resident who has been measuring the imperiled shoreline bordering New Pass.
Eliott Himelfarb, 65, of Sarasota says that North Lido Beach was 22 feet wide when he started documenting erosion at the beach in January of 2016. The beach is open to the public, but there is a private access from the Lido Shores community to the coastline.
Since the beginning of 2018, more than 7 feet of the beach has vanished from “normal” wave action, Himelfarb said. A sand ledge is now at the base of a popular pavilion built by the Lido Shore’s Neighborhood Association in 2014 to replace a dingy shack that once sat on the beach.
“This is an ongoing concern. The pavilion is our biggest asset,” Himelfarb said. “The beach is a phenomenal asset. It’s all part of the community. … Right now with the conditions — if this were to be partially washed away — it’s not a slam dunk that we can rebuild in this location. It’s not a slam dunk that we could rebuild anywhere on our property, which would be a huge, huge disappointment to everyone here today (Sunday).”
Twenty-three residents from Lido Shores responded to an email to appear at the pavilion to speak with the Herald-Tribune on Sunday afternoon. They recalled a vast, wide beach and neighborhood walks down to South Lido.
The way from the North Lido seawall to the main central beach is now blocked by seawater, which is washing away the path south.
Judy Fiala, 77, has lived in Lido Shores since 1986 and says the beach was once more than 60 feet wide. She is concerned, but says realistically that Mother Nature will decide the fate of the beach.
“Sand moves. That’s what sand does,” said Fiala, who once took a class on the barrier islands at Suncoast Technical College. “There really is no permanent solution. Whether you pump sand up here and save more beach here — protect even the homes that have seawalls for a certain period of time — that’s the hard decision. Is that worth it?”
“It concerns me. The only thought I have is that I’m not sure there is much that we can do to really affect what’s happening here. Mom Nature is a much more powerful force.”
Fiala has seen less wildlife, such as sea turtles, osprey and eagles, as the beach washes out. She said their effort to save the beach is for everyone.
“This is probably the least beach we’ve seen maybe in the last 10 years,” Fiala said.
Neighbor Carolyn Fuoco says she used to walk from North Lido to St. Armands, around the circle and back, but can no longer do that. She said fewer people are coming up the beach, where she often sits at the pavilion.
“It’s very frustrating to see that our beach is washing away,” Fuoco said. “I’d like them (local government) to consider us as part of the whole beach replenishment all the way down to South Lido. We are only a little neighborhood, but we love our beach.”
City Manager Tom Barwin said the city of Sarasota agrees with Lido Shores residents, but there are obstacles delaying action. The city could not act on plans to aid North Lido until the Siesta Key Association’s legal challenge to the plan to renourish Lido Key beaches with sand from Big Pass was settled.
A state judge on May 8 rejected Siesta Key residents’ attempt to block state permission for dredging of Big Pass needed for the renourishment project on eroded Lido Key. The project will replenish Longboat Key and central and southern Lido beaches, but does not include North Lido.
The Siesta Key Association is considering appealing the decision.
“If they don’t, then the (North Lido) project is a couple years out probably,” Barwin said. “We need to get the emergency renourishment handled and the longer-term product completed as soon as possible that should help the situation at North Lido. When we do the New Pass treatment this fall, that will improve the current more through the middle of the pass and take the pressure off the edge. That’s the number one thing that has to happen.”
Barwin said the city will continue to work “proactively” with the shoreline residents on an inlet channel and shoreline-monitoring and preservation plan.
The city is experimenting with groins — a manmade structure designed to trap sand moving down the beach by a longshore drift.
“They have been experimenting with those somewhat successfully on Longboat Key,” Barwin says.
Roberta Arguedos, 37, who has lived in Lido Shores since 2014, said that beach access is part of his home’s appeal. He said residents aren’t asking for special favors to shore up their beach, but questions why a comprehensive plan isn’t in place to protect North Lido’s “amazing bounty” of natural resources?
“I feel that big picture management of the beach area that marshals the resources of everybody to say what is going to preserve the sand on Lido the longest,” Arguedos said. “What mechanical measures do we need to take before we start moving sand around or talking about any of that. Or do we need to accept certain things and move lines around for what people can reasonably consider property. If that’s the case then they need to be straight with us about it.”
Source: Herald-Tribune
