Posted on December 14, 2017
By Zach Murdock, Herald-Tribune
The plan to dredge sand from Big Pass to rebuild eroded portions of south Lido Beach will land in court this week.
Lido Key residents have clashed with Siesta Key groups for years over the potential environmental impacts of the plan to pull sand from the channel between the two keys. Their fight boiled over into several legal actions earlier this year after the state announced it intended to issue a final permit for the work.
Now, the central arguments about the science behind the plan will finally come before state administrative law Judge Bram D.E. Canter at a week-long hearing on the Siesta groups’ formal appeal of the state permit.
The hearing starts in Courtroom 2 on the sixth floor of the Sarasota County Justice Center, 2071 Ringling Blvd. in downtown Sarasota. The proceedings are open to the public and are expected to take the full six days scheduled for the hearings.
Dozens of local residents and expert witnesses will be called to testify on both sides of the issue and attorneys will present hundreds of exhibits, according to court documents.
The ruling from the hearing could either greenlight the project more than a decade in the making, as city officials hope, or direct additions or changes to the permit and plan, as Siesta Key groups hope.
But in either event, the final ruling isn’t expected to be issued for months, attorneys have said.
The joint project by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the city of Sarasota calls for using 1.2 million cubic yards of sand from the channel between Lido and Siesta keys to nourish diminishing beaches on Lido. It also would install groins on Lido to attempt to prevent some drifting erosion and initiate a plan of regular, smaller dredging to maintain the beach over the next 50 years.
But the plan has been widely criticized by residents, businesses and civic groups on Siesta who fear changes to Big Pass could adversely affect the iconic sand on their key’s world-renowned beaches.
The argument pits the Siesta Key Association, Save Our Siesta Sand 2 and Florida Wildlife Federation against the plan and the city and Army Corps and Lido Key Residents Association arguing for it.
What’s the argument?
The heart of the argument centers around the effects of the shoals in Big Pass and how they influence each key.
The shoals have never been dredged and Siesta Key groups argue that could trigger negative effects for south-drifting sand that lands on Siesta. Instead, the city should look to offshore sand sources, the Siesta side argues.
The project “is short-sighted and risks destroying Big Sarasota Pass, the Ebb shoal and causing untold damage to down-drift beaches all for the sake of saving a few pennies,” the Siesta Key Association argued in a pre-hearing summary document. “The Corps and City have ignored and refuse to utilize offshore borrow areas to acquire sand to place on Lido Key. Instead, they seek to ‘back pass’ sand from the closer ebb shoal to Lido Key which will starve down-drift beaches like Siesta Key of sand and cause erosion of their beaches.”
But the city and Lido Key residents argue dredging will not keep sand from drifting to Siesta, even if it slows that process down, and that they must act now to protect Lido Key.
“The on-going erosion of Lido Key threatens upland development, animal habitats, and recreational uses,” the city argues in the pre-hearing document. “Conversely, Siesta Key beach continues to accrete. The erosional trend of Lido Key and the accretional trend of Siesta Key is a consequence of the dynamics of the ebb shoal in Big Sarasota Pass. The sand on Lido Key erodes and accumulates into the ebb shoal and is then transported south onto Siesta Key. Conversely, the sand on Siesta Key erodes and some of it is transported south, but the sand that would naturally move from Siesta Key to the north and onto Lido Key is “trapped” by the ebb shoal and eventually redirected south back onto Siesta Key.
What’s next
Even after a ruling is issued several from months now, a civil lawsuit against the project is still pending.
The Siesta Key Association filed that lawsuit shortly after filing the administrative appeal to challenge whether the project complies with the local comprehensive plan — an argument D.E. Canter cast doubt on when he refused to pause the administrative appeal process for the civil case.
Circuit Court Judge Lon Arend put that case on hold in late April, ruling that the administrative hearings should be concluded before the civil case can begin. But he also refused the city of Sarasota’s motion to dismiss the claims entirely.
All the while Lido residents and city officials fear more damage to the key if interim renourishment measures cannot be completed in time for the next hurricane season. City Engineer Alex DavisShaw has been working on permitting for a smaller, more immediate project and Mayor Shelli Freeland Eddie and other city officials pitched federal officials for Lido funding while on a trip to Washington, D.C., earlier this month.
Source: Herald-Tribune
