Mayor supports beach project

Longboat Key Mayor George Spoll has become a spokesperson for the town’s $16 million beach project, along with Town Manager Bruce St. Denis and town beach engineers.

At a Longboat Key Public Interest Committee forum titled, “Beaches 101,” held Thursday, Jan. 27, at Longboat Island Chapel, Spoll told the approximately 75 people in attendance why the north-end, sand-and-structure project is needed.

“The commission does understand the need for ongoing nourishment of the beach,” Spoll said. “But there are arguments over the amount of sand required and the frequency of those sand projects.”

But Spoll told the group that there’s one topic about which the commission is in agreement.

“This is the project the commission knows is appropriate at this point in history,” Spoll said.

Spoll said it was a decision the commission didn’t take lightly.

“We have had to learn how beaches function,” Spoll said. “An inlet-management plan being performed will help us understand how we can retain sand on the north end.”

Spoll also announced that a peer review of the town’s beach- management plan (along with a review of town beach engineer Coastal Planning & Engineering’s actions) will be performed in the coming months to make sure the project and the beach plan are still appropriate for the town.

“We will be getting an opinion of our beach-management plan and the actions CP&E is going through to make us more comfortable about what we have been doing and whether we should continue on the current track,” Spoll said.

Spoll also said the current commission is more open to getting federal dollars for future projects.

“But, for now, we will concentrate on the structures at the north end and the capture of that sand that’s lost forever,” Spoll said.

Also at the forum, Key resident Lenny Landau made a short presentation about the town’s beach-management plan.

“I think the beaches are extremely important, and I wanted to study it and try to explain it in a better way for other people,” said Landau, a retired engineer.

Landau showed the audience how the town measures its beach width and where the town is both gaining and losing sand.

St. Denis followed Landau and explained that the town’s current beach plan requires a 130-foot beach width and a 6-foot high beach.

“The visible beach only makes up one-third of the beach profile,” St. Denis said. “The wet, non-visible beach makes up approximately two-thirds of the total beach.”

St. Denis also explained how important the $16 million project is for the north end.

“We have to put sand down in front of these people before we can get structures installed in 2012,” St. Denis said.

St. Denis said the project is relevant to all of the island’s taxpayers, despite whether they live near the north end.

“If we can control the erosion, everyone saves money,” St. Denis said. “It’s to everyone’s benefit that these structures get put in.”

St. Denis said a groin that’s similar to what sits on the other side of Longboat Pass at the southern tip of Anna Maria Island might help hold sand in the area.

Two other groins that are proposed near the vicinity of North Shore Road might also help.

“The north end is incredibly eroded and in trouble,” said St. Denis, who noted that town staff had to place some beach-quality material near North Shore Road Sunday, Jan. 23 in an emergency situation.

St. Denis explained that the north end was relatively stable until 2004, and that a combination of wave conditions, Longboat Pass instability and a dredging of the pass in 1993 have led to problems.

In an effort to combat erosion on the north end, the town’s beach project includes removing sand near a natural-gas pipeline route and placing it on the beach ($9.5 million) and installing north-end structures ($6.2 million).

St. Denis told those in attendance that a worst-case scenario for Gulf-side property owners with a $500,000 home would be those property owners paying an additional $481 in the first year of the project bond, $472 in year two and $515 total for the next eight years. (Click here to see box.)

The project, however, has the potential of receiving $8 million in reimbursements and surtax credits, which would lower taxpayers’ cost.

Contact Kurt Schultheis at [email protected]