Posted on January 10, 2017
By Zach Murdock, Herald-Tribune
State environmental officials have granted requests by Sarasota County and the Siesta Key Association for extensions to the deadline to appeal a plan to permit the controversial Big Pass dredging project.
The extension until Jan. 16 will give the Sarasota County Commission an opportunity to consider an appeal at its regularly scheduled meetings next week.
The county’s agenda, along with any staff report or recommendations on the issue, will be finalized later this week, county spokesman Jason Bartolone said.
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection on Dec. 22 issued its “notice of intent to issue” the joint coastal permit necessary to pursue the project to renourish Lido Key beaches.
The notice started a 14-day clock during which administrative appeals could be filed. But both county staff and the Siesta Key Association asked the DEP for an extension because of time off around the holidays during that initial two-week period.
The county filed for the extension late last week and has been reviewing the notice since, but officials have not yet determined their next step, Bartolone said Wednesday.
The proposed project led by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and city of Sarasota calls for dredging up to 1.2 million cubic yards of sand from the pass to rebuild more than 1.5 miles of Lido Key beach. But Siesta residents and groups have objected to the plan amid fears that changes to the channel could harm their key’s iconic beaches.
The County Commission and administrators raised questions in August on particular items in the permit, such as staging at the county-owned Ted Sperling Park, and sided with the concerns of the Siesta Key Association by asking the Army Corps to conduct a second and more intensive environmental study of the project.
Although the Army Corps denied that request in November, the commission could discuss those issues again next week.
City Manager Tom Barwin has defended the project, arguing that monitoring programs will ensure no harm is caused by the project.
The project has reached a turning point in the bitter, decade-long public argument between Lido and Siesta keys over the science behind the project, transitioning into a formal legal battle.
The Siesta Key Association and opposition group Save Our Siesta Sand 2 have pledged to file separate appeals to the notice.
The association also has retained Tallahassee law firm Hopping Green & Sams, the same firm that helped the association and other groups block an Army Corps proposal to renourish Venice beaches by dredging Big Pass in 1994. The association hopes it can gain the county’s support in its appeal, association second vice president Catherine Luckner said.
“It’s broader than us; it affects everybody,” she said. “I’m relieved, really, that the county has continued to act on what affects everybody, just as they did when they acted before (in August). They have the authority to request something quite different and be engaged in this.”
Source: Herald-Tribune
