County, city discuss stormwater management

Rain, rain, go away: This is, more or less, a primary function of Sarasota’s stormwater management system.

Right now, that system gets mixed results. Residents in different pockets of the city regularly raise concerns about flooding in their neighborhoods during heavy rainfall, an issue elected officials expressed interest in addressing at a Jan. 22 City Commission meeting.

But county staff, responsible for managing the city’s stormwater system, says it’s a more challenging operation than one might initially think. During a presentation at that meeting, county Stormwater Division Manager Chuck Walter said the type of flooding residents complain about is often in line with the expected level of service for the system in that area of the city.

When county officials say that to a member of the public, they usually hear a request to improve the stormwater infrastructure in that resident’s neighborhood. But absent an infusion of cash, Walter said that is a difficult undertaking.

“We are constantly asked to try to improve the system, improve level of service for flood control,” Walter said. “And the reality is that’s a very challenging process to go through because we need a new funding source to do those projects.”

The commission expressed some dismay at the notion there was no fix for neighborhoods facing flooding roads. And they pushed both county and city staff members to make it easier for residents to figure out how much flooding they should expect during heavy rainfall — or who they should contact when legitimate problems arise.

“I don’t know what to tell other neighborhoods in those kinds of situations,” Commissioner Jen Ahearn-Koch said.

Problem areas

Following the Jan. 22 meeting, county and city staff have begun discussing strategies for providing additional stormwater-related information online and making it easier for residents to speak to the right person about an issue they’re facing.

Even before that, the county was already in the process of considering some systemic changes in identified problem areas within the city. The county plans to complete reports analyzing the Harbor Acres neighborhood and the Whitaker Bayou basin in February and March, respectively.

Harbor Acres was one of those city neighborhoods where residents raised concerns about flooding. When county staff members responded to the complaints, they discovered the performance of the stormwater system genuinely didn’t seem to meet the established level of service. As a result, the county commissioned a more thorough analysis of the conditions in the neighborhood, located west of South Tamiami Trail.

Those studies include a hydrologic and hydraulic model. The hydrologic aspect focuses on how much water comes into the system, while the hydraulic element relates to how the system handles that water. Staff uses these models countywide to get a gauge for the amount of rain expected in an area and how the infrastructure should perform.

Typically, the county uses a “100-year storm” model to determine its level of service, designing the system around how it might perform in an extreme rainfall event. But staff found out that metric didn’t work for Harbor Acres, because flooding in the waterfront neighborhood was not just tied to rainfall, but also to the tides.

“We’re going through a few extra steps in the Harbor Acres analysis so we can better describe that aspect of how tide interfaces with the larger issue,” Walter said.

Once that study is completed, Walter said it would be left to the city and Harbor Acres residents to decide how to fund any improvements. The county has typically funded stormwater infrastructure projects through a special assessment on residents.

As residents await a potential large-scale project, Harbor Acres Community Association President Tina Biter said the county has already managed to make some improvements in the area. She sees some of the flooding as an unavoidable issue, but she was appreciative of the work officials are doing.

“When we had some of those torrential rains when you have 4 inches in an hour, I don’t think there’s anything you can do,” Biter said. “It does go down quicker than it used to.”

The Whitaker Bayou analysis dates back to the late 1990s, an initiative that has languished because of a lack of funding for improvements. Still, Walter was excited about the potential for undertaking some cost-effective projects, highlighting programs that would focus on removing debris from the system to address both water quality and flooding issues.

Arthur Lindemanis, a director of the Central Cocoanut Neighborhood Association, said neighborhoods bordering the Whitaker Bayou have been engaged in discussions with the county about potential improvements. The neighborhood itself is undertaking some stormwater-related initiatives, including supporting an environmental education program at Bay Haven School of Basics Plus. But, like Biter, he saw some of the challenges as too significant for any one solution.

“I don’t think there was ever the anticipation that the northern part of Sarasota would be as developed as it is becoming,” Lindemanis said. “Between the hardened surfaces and the aged system, there’s a problem.”

Costs vs. benefits

Although Walter said many neighborhood flooding issues do not represent a failure for the stormwater system, Ahearn-Koch questioned whether more could be done.

She cited her own neighborhood, Tahiti Park, as an example. There, she said, the neighborhood’s primary point of entrance on Hampton Road can become difficult for cars to navigate during storms.

“It seems a little extreme and a little bit onerous to say to a neighborhood, ‘We can’t help you,’ when you’ve got water up to your doorstep and the street is flooded probably close to a foot,” Ahearn-Koch said.

Walter said the county does try to see if any smaller measures can improve the situation in neighborhoods with flooding problems, including clearing drains. But even if a street has standing water for a couple hours, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s an issue that needs to be addressed by the county’s standards.

“What people are considering flooding really doesn’t come to the point of what they call a deficiency in their level of service,” City Public Works Director Doug Jeffcoat said.

The county is evaluating how it uses special assessments to fund capital projects for potential changes. Right now, Walter said, the prospect of a special assessment can sour a neighborhood on undertaking improvements. This problem is magnified in smaller neighborhoods, where the cost of a major project would be spread among fewer households.

“When you say you’ll build a $20 million project to save $1 million worth of property values, it’s a hard nut for anybody to swallow,” Walter said. “At the same token, well, the reason it’s only $1 million worth of property is because they have flooding problems.”

Walter said most stormwater improvements are also eligible for grant funding, which the county is diligent about pursuing. Still, as both city and county officials examine flooding issues within their jurisdiction, cost will remain a driving factor in determining whether a project will ultimately move forward.

“Is the juice worth the squeeze?” Walter said.