Controversy also arises over replacement of handicap parking space at Beach Access 2
Hurricane Helene started the process in late September, and then Hurricane Milton made it worse when it came ashore on Oct. 9.
As shown in Sarasota County Public Works Department photos, Beach Access 2 on Siesta Key, at the western end of Avenida Messina, and the adjacent portion of North Beach Road were turned into jumbles of asphalt.
As a result, the Public Works Department pursued a restoration of the beach access and the road, as Sarasota County Administrator Jonathan Lewis explained to the county commissioners in an Oct. 24 email.
However, as Lewis indicated and Commissioner Mark Smith — a long-time Siesta resident — confirmed, some island residents have not been happy with the process.
Lewis forwarded to the commissioners an email that he had received earlier on Oct. 24 from Spencer Anderson, director of Public Works.
First, Anderson pointed out, “Helene and Milton washed away all of the sand at [Beach Access 2] that had accreted over the past 12 years and once again damaged the road in this area. [Public Works] crews were making repairs to the road and constructing a curb/headwall to replace what was there originally (years ago) and continue what is currently there just south of the damaged area.”
One Siesta resident, Anderson continued, complained “that the headwall was going to cause erosion of the beach.”
Anderson added, “After the local made his statements yesterday morning, he left and did not return. Road repair work continues as planned and should finish up early next week.”
On Nov. 14, Public Works personnel confirmed to The Sarasota News Leaderthat necessary road repairs at both Beach Access 2 and Beach Access 3 had been completed.
“We will be replacing the striping and signage for the [commission-] approved handicap parking spot near Beach Access #2,” the email added.
In his Oct. 24 email, Anderson pointed out that, “prior to 2013, the area of [Beach Access 2] was chronically eroded up to the road edge with exposed rubble and riprap in the surf zone … Since 2013, the area had seen significant sand accretion (see attached 2024 aerial).”
Then he noted, “Milton and Helene eroded all of that sand and what’s left of the beach is back to rubble and riprap. The small headwall we are building to support the curb is no threat to eroding the non-existent beach.”
Nonetheless, Anderson wrote, “I’m sure this will be another issue of conversation in the future because the nearby vacation housing no longer has the large wide beach as an amenity.”
Next in his Oct. 24 email, Anderson addressed the topic that the Public Works staff referenced in its Nov. 14 comments to the News Leader: the replacement of the handicap parking space at Beach Access 2.
“The Miramar Parking District exists by [county] Ordinance in this area of Siesta Key,” Anderson explained. “On January 12, 2011, the Board amended the parking ordinance to allow for public parking in handicap spots and gave staff direction to install a single handicap parking spot at [Beach Access 2].”
Because of the destruction wrought by Hurricane Helene, the road where the space had been reserved had to be replaced, Anderson continued. Yet, he wrote, “[L]ocals are demanding we do not reinstall the handicap spot. This is because they argue it causes confusion with the remaining no parking, no stopping no standing zone in this area and people end up parking, stopping and standing.”
He added, “I happen to agree that the area is subject to those activities and the handicap spot contributes to such. Regardless, it was Board direction, so we intend to replace it unless given other instruction.”
‘The landscape’s changed so much’
During a Nov. 12 telephone interview, Commissioner Smith told the News Leader, “I’ve had, I guess, a few citizens express their concerns over the [road] construction and the [plan to reinstall the] handicap parking space at the end of the street.”
Nonetheless, he continued, “What we’re doing is exactly what we need to do. We’re just putting the road back.”
In fact, he emphasized, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) would not reimburse the county for a project that created a new path for the road.
Yet, Smith said he believes the primary reason that some people have been upset is because they think that county workers have not replaced the road in the location where it stood was before the storms.
“The landscape’s changed so much,” Smith pointed out, which makes it difficult to see that the road limits are the same.
He went to the site himself, he said, to look at the situation. Indeed, he added, “The curbing remaining from Beach Road does line up [with the restored road].”
“We haven’t raised the road up,” Smith stressed; it just appears that way because of the loss of sand. Smith estimated “it’s a good 18 inches … of drop” from the road to what little sand remains.
In fact, “Because of the beach being taken away” in that area, the old groin on property that Mike Cosentino bought about eight years ago next to Beach Access 2, which Cosentino christened “Patriots Pier,” Smith said, now is “actually a pier.”
Smith noted that the beach in that part of the island had accreted considerably over the years, as shown in images that Anderson had sent Lewis, who had passed them along to the commissioners.
One Siesta resident had recommended that the county construct a step revetment in that area, Smith added, which would break up the wave action and help protect the road from erosion. The revetment also would allow people to step down to the beach, Smith said.
Still, Smith indicated, with the county’s tackling so many projects to try to restore communities in the wake of Helene and Milton, the step revetment is not a high priority.
As for the new wall at the site: Smith said he had heard one concern, too, that it “is too close to the water. But,” he added, it “is at the limits of the previous road.” The erosion, Smith explained, has made it appear that “the water’s closer to the wall. … The right of way’s even farther seaward than the wall.”
As for the issue about the handicap parking space: Smith told the News Leaderthat he had talked to County Administrator Lewis about that, as well.
Smith added that he was not sure why the commissioners seated in 2011 agreed to place the handicap parking space in that location, at the end of Avenida Messina. “Usually, those spaces are for access to a facility or building,” he pointed out. “This is just to park, not to park and get out [of the vehicle].”
Moreover, he pointed out, given the tight space at the end of Avenida Messina where the space is located, and the fact that the County Commission in 2016 vacated part of North Beach Road in the same general area, it is difficult for anyone who uses the handicap space to turn around. Smith likened the situation to that of a cul-de-sac.
Lewis did concur with his thinking, Smith said, that a new group of commissioners could choose to eliminate the parking space. Nonetheless, Smith added, he did not see how having that spot reserved would cause a problem for anyone in the Miramar Parking District.