Posted on October 1, 2025
Lynn Timberlake used to kick her feet in the waves from a seawall behind her Indian Rocks Beach home.
Now, she watches sea turtle nests emerge in the sand between the wall and the water, the sea oats that sprout from it and a heron that tries to snatch snacks from fishermen on the shore.
That’s a result of beach renourishment that takes place every several years in Pinellas County. It’s a process where sand is pumped from seabeds and dumped on beaches to create distance between buildings and the shoreline.
This month, renourishment started along some of Pinellas’ most severely eroded beaches on Sand Key, including Timberlake’s Indian Rocks Beach property. But the outcome promises to look a little different this go around.
To do the work, the county needs easements to access landowners’ private property. But obtaining them has proven a difficult task. Almost 100 property owners haven’t signed agreements to give the county access to their property for its $125.7 million project this year.
As a result, the county will only pump sand from the edge of their private properties to the water.
That will leave some property owners with dips or pits behind their homes or businesses, and potentially more vulnerable to storm surge. One county official described it as a “sawtooth” approach to the periodic exercise of beach renourishment.
The Tampa Bay Times used public records from Pinellas County Public Works to map the gaps in the project. The visualization reveals whole stretches of barrier island that will go without full fortification. Other parts of the beach will end up with peaks and valleys between neighbors.
Some of those valleys will even out over time. But those who monitor beach erosion said it’s not an ideal approach to hardening the shoreline against flooding.
“We found a cure, and these people just don’t want to participate,” University of South Florida coastal geology professor Ping Wang said. “We’re kind of stuck.”
It should be noted that the sand may not stay in place as long without all the agreements, Wang said.
County officials said areas with the most scattered agreements could be skipped entirely if Weeks Marine Inc., the company the county contracted for the project, doesn’t have room to maneuver between the gaps. This means some beachfront landowners who did sign agreements may not receive sand next to their homes.
The Times’ maps of Indian Rocks Beach and Indian Shores show several stretches where tight spaces could present a challenge.
County officials have pointed out that water goes where the beach is weakest. In this case, that’s where people haven’t signed agreements.
“Beach nourishment is effective, it works,” Wang said. “And yes, the sand will get washed away by storms, but if you don’t have the sand, the storm will do more damage.”
Residents who didn’t sign might get some sand that naturally drifts over from their neighbors. Others may wind up with occasional ponding that allows algae or plants to grow. That would also attract bugs and birds, Wang said.
Indian Rocks Beach resident Ron McVety is one of the nearly 100 owners who haven’t agreed to have sand placed behind their property.
In a video taken shortly after last year’s storms, he panned his phone camera across the beach behind his home. Waves lapped at debris in the sand.
“We don’t really need steps anymore, do we?” McVety can be heard asking. He turned the camera to show sand covering the bottom of a set of stairs heading down to the beach, his deck furniture scattered and pool water a murky green.
He said he doesn’t see a need for renourishment on his property. He had to pay contractors to excavate the sand that was pushed into his pool by wind and water.
James Vacherlon experienced the same. He’s a condo association board member in Redington Shores and said the condo is still recovering from damage to its first floor from last year’s hurricanes. The association had to hire someone to remove sand that covered the first floor.
He said he isn’t sure the county understands how hard property owners worked to clean up sand from living areas and other spaces.
Timberlake said she only signed an agreement because it was temporary and knows some of her neighbors are determined not to sign. The county is moving ahead without federal financial assistance that required property owners to grant permanent easements.
Pinellas has emphasized that much of the beaches along Sand Key, Treasure Island and Long Key-Upham Beach are considered critically eroded. That means so much sand has washed away that the renourishment project is an emergency, one-time fix.
Indian Rocks Beach Mayor-Commissioner Denise Houseberg added that some beachfront landowners rent out their properties for most of the year and may not be aware of the need to replenish beach sand. There are also Airbnb hosts that the county has been unable to reach.
“It’s sort of an out of sight, out of mind thing,” Houseberg said. “It’s like they’re not seeing what the issue is, they don’t know why they need to sign an easement.”
Since the County Commission voted to move forward with renourishment in June, it’s held three meetings to describe the project and hosted a notary in July to help residents understand and sign the agreements.
Nearly 70 property owners have signed since then.
The county will accept an agreement as long as the dredging equipment hasn’t passed someone’s property, Public Works Director Kelli Hammer Levy said. In stretches along Indian Rocks Beach and Indian Shores, in particular, that may be needed.
Timberlake is getting ready for the giant, snake-like tube that will spit sand behind her villa as Pinellas’ project continues. Even with the added sand, she understands there’s no guarantee she will be spared from flooding with the next storm.
“Truly by the grace of God, that could be anybody at any time,” Timberlake said.
