SKVA debates outdoor displays and dredging

A ban on outdoor displays and a controversial project to mine Big Pass for Lido Beach sand topped the agenda at Tuesday’s Siesta Key Village Association meeting.

SKVA President Cheryl Gaddie announced that a forum will be held Nov. 12 to discuss potential changes to a county ordinance banning the display of merchandise outdoors.

The meeting’s intent will be to collect input from Siesta business owners to gauge what changes should be made to the existing rules and how to uniformly enforce what currently exists. Gaddie encouraged all Siesta Key business owners to attend, stressing the importance of community input in creating any changes to the existing regulations. She emphasized the ban is a county ordinance, not a Siesta Key Overlay District (SKOD) zoning code rule.

“We don’t want to count on the county to enforce this by coming in to tax and penalize,” Gaddie said. “We all need to agree on something before any changes can be made. This is very much a democracy, we want everyone to be happy with the rules.”

Also on Tuesday, Siesta Key Association Board Member Peter van Roekens presented a petition calling for an independent peer review and public hearings to better analyze plans to mine Big Pass for Lido Beach sand. Van Roekens said independent researchers have not properly vetted the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ project, leaving too much margin for error in predictive models and an unacceptable degree of uncertainty on how the project could impact the health of Siesta Key beaches.

“One of the biggest threats we face on Siesta Key is the dredging of Big Pass,” van Roekens said. “I’m not against Lido Beach being renourished, but I am if it impacts Siesta Key.”

Van Roekens also said the discussion at a recent West Coast Inland Navigation District meeting revealed that one of the dredging project’s proposed groins is scheduled to be built on county property at the southern end of Lido Beach. This development will give the county the ability to stall a key component of the Corps’ plans, which, according to the project manager Milan Mora, would likely require shelving the entire operation.

SKA President Catherine Luckner and board member Michael Shay both emphasized that the association has not yet taken an official position on the dredging plans, but is calling for more public input.

“Regarding whether this should or should not go forward, SKA is still gathering information,” Shay said.
“We have money put aside to commission an independent review if we need to do so,” Luckner said. “But we believe this is a county process … we would like to see more public input.”

The Siesta Key Village Association’s public meeting to discuss changes to the ordinance banning outdoor merchandise displays will be held at 3:45 p.m. Nov. 12, at St. Boniface Church, 5615 Midnight Pass Road, Siesta Key.

Contact Nolan Peterson at [email protected]