Consultant Suau proposes halt on new developments in areas most prone to flooding
On Jan. 21, after listening to an approximately two-hour-long presentation from the director of Sarasota County’s Public Works director and an independent consultant with extensive stormwater expertise, the county commissioners this week made it clear that they want a second stormwater workshop no later than mid-March.
Nonetheless, referencing recommendations from staff and the consultant that morning, Commissioner Tom Knight stressed, “I think we need to … make some bold decisions. … I think we need to have the courage to do what we need to do right now.”
Among the proposals of Sarasota consultant Steve Suau — who, as a county employee, helped launch the Environmental Stormwater Utility program — was to limit development in areas of the county with the greatest risk for flooding.
“Putting more houses in areas that are designated as significant flood-prone areas is tricky,” Suau said. It leads to flooding in situations such as Hurricane Debby, in August 2024, he added, when far more rain falls in a short period of time than the level factored into the stormwater model that county staff uses in analyzing development applications.
Suau’s slide put that recommendation thus: “[T]he available floodplain models and maps [should] be used proactively to more rigorously evaluate rezoning applications that propose to increase densities in designated floodplains.”
Suau also called for the county to “prioritize floodplains for planning and protection through acquisition of public easements. Such a proactive program should include coordination, if not a partnership with other agencies and programs such as Sarasota County’s Environmentally Significant Lands Protection Program (ESLPP) to implement floodplain, water quality, and ecological function enhancements; facilitate public access and recreation opportunities; and assure perpetual management (i.e. operation and maintenance), as applicable.”
The county’s 1994 purchase of the property that became the focus of the Celery Fields Regional Stormwater Management Program “established a successful template for [such initiatives]” Suau told the commissioners. “[The purchase of the Celery Fields is] a shining example of how to protect the most significant floodplains in the county. You know where they all are,” he added. “They’re mapped.”
Spencer Anderson, director of the county’s Public Works Department — of which the Stormwater Division is a part — presented one slide that elaborated on that recommendation in the context of what county staff would have to do to achieve the highest discount on federal flood insurance policies, known as Class 1 status in what is called the Community Rating System. (The county is in Class 5, which means homeowners get a 25% discount on policies through the National Flood Insurance Program, or NFIP.)
Among other factors to achieve Class 1, Anderson pointed out, would be halting development in the Special Flood Hazard Areas and in coastal areas subject to erosion, as well as in areas seaward of county construction control lines, including the Gulf Beach Setback Line (GBSL) and the 20-year Pass Hazard Line.
“These are very strict potential regulations,” Anderson stressed, noting that only two local government jurisdictions in the United States are rated Class 1, and both are on mountaintops. He also acknowledged that some of the actions “could infringe on property rights,” as provided for in state law.
Yet another Class 1 prerequisite, Anderson said, is the acquisition or refitting of 25% of the properties in the Special Flood Hazard Area, to mitigate repetitive losses. “We already do that,” Anderson said, “but it’s not a requirement.” The county uses Federal Emergency Management Area (FEMA) grant funds for such purposes, he added. “It’s just very few and far between.”
Other options are available, Anderson then noted, which the board members could pursue in regard to modifying the county’s stormwater model for development to be even stronger. Nonetheless, Anderson said, “We have in Sarasota County the highest level of service for flood regulations that I’m aware of in the state of Florida, if not in the entire country.” (He also pointed out that the county’s Stormwater Environmental Utility, which the County Commission established in 1989, was the first in the state to be created by a county. The utility imposes annual property assessments, which are its primary source of revenue for stormwater initiatives, Anderson said.)
Regardless of the value of the current model’s abilities, Anderson continued, one option for board consideration is that instead of having to prove that a new development will not produce negative effects on neighboring properties during a 100-year flood event, which entails a 1% annual chance of 10 inches of rain falling in 24 hours, an applicant could be required to show that a new community would not result in adverse impacts on its environs during a flood event in which 18 inches of rain fell in 24 hours.
“That’s a significant change,” Anderson emphasized. Yet, he said, Tropical Storm Debby might have dropped that much rain on some parts of the county.
The county’s stormwater model incorporates every new development comprising 35 or more acres or 8 or more acres of impervious area, Anderson noted. (“Impervious” refers to a surface through which water cannot percolate.)
Suau further called for the county’s Stormwater Division to engage with the Southwest Florida Water Management District (SWFEMD), the United States Geological Survey (USGS), “and any other appropriate authoritative and academic agencies to update the design rainfall volumes for planning and regulatory purposes.”
Another option, Anderson added, is to require that new communities produce no adverse impact during a three-day storm event.
Better communication and outreach with the public
Suau also proposed regular community workshops for residents in the county’s five primary watersheds: Sarasota Bay, Little Sarasota Bay, Dona/Roberts Bay, Lemon Bay, and the Myakka River. Those should be held at least annually, he added, with existing and new residents of those areas encouraged to be present.
Public comments that he has heard routinely, Suau pointed out, focus on the perception “that the stormwater infrastructure is not being maintained to the customers’ expectations. … I believe there needs to be a concerted effort to turn this around.” Staff should seek residents’ comments regarding maintenance needs that they have observed, he told the board
In accord with the routine workshops, Suau also encouraged the commissioners to ensure that county residents understand how to access and use the Sarasota Stormwater Map, which, Anderson noted, provides information about maintenance schedules.
“We’re really close to being on those schedules,” Anderson said, in spite of setbacks because of the storms last year.
During the public sessions, Suau recommended, county stormwater staff should review not only the maintenance schedules for waterways, but also those for what he and Anderson called “Hot Spots.”
Anderson told the commissioners that the county has 202 assets that have been identified as “hot spot” infrastructure. He explained that they are so designated because if they are compromised in some way, flooding will occur in the areas around them. Among such structures are bridges, pump stations, weirs and pipes, one of Anderson’s slides showed.
Debris can impede the function of those assets before and during storms, Anderson continued. Staff checks them before a storm is predicted to hit the area, he said.
Further, Suau called for the Stormwater Division to “inventory all dikes (or levees) within the City of Sarasota and unincorporated Sarasota County. The inventory should identify the ownership and entity responsible for maintenance of all dikes (or levees). Finally, the [Stormwater Division] should require that all dikes (or levees) are inspected and certified annually by a professional engineer to ensure proper operation and maintenance.”
Critical concern about Phillippi Creek
In the meantime, after listening again that day to members of the public stressing their concerns about sandbars in Phillippi Creek that are impeding water flow — producing storm flooding in homes in Southgate as well as in an area called River Forest — Commissioner Knight pointed out, “I think the most important thing we’ve got right now is Phillippi Creek.”
As The Sarasota News Leader reported last week, representatives of a new community organization called Supporters for Action Now in Dredging (SAND) implored the commissioners during the board’s regular meeting on Jan. 15 to ensure that sand is dredged from Phillippi Creek. They presented photos and graphics to underscore the problem, which produced significant flooding in their homes during the Tropical Storm Debby, Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton events in 2024.
Anderson acknowledged that Phillippi Creek has not been dredged since 2002. That project was handled by the West Coast Inland Navigation District (WCIND), which is based in Venice.
The organization’s website explains, “The West Coast Inland Navigation District (WCIND) is a multi-county special taxing body, covering Manatee, Sarasota, Charlotte, and Lee counties, encompassing an estimated 1.8 million people. The District plays a pivotal role in the waterway projects that promote safe navigation from the ‘open water’ of the Gulf of Mexico or the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway (GIWW) to the systems of secondary waterways. WCIND supports county and local governments in maintaining and enhancing public navigation channels and inlets, boating access facilities, waterfront parks, and piers and special structures.”
Anderson added on Jan. 21 that WCIND already has been planning to dredge Phillippi Creek from U.S. 41 to Little Sarasota Bay. However, he added, staff is working with the WCIND to obtain a survey for a potential project that would extend the dredging farther upstream “to address some of the sediment concerns that we’ve all heard [about] in that area.”
In a Jan. 22 email to a SAND representative, which was shared with the News Leader, Commissioner Ron Cutsinger noted that he is Sarasota County’s member on the WCIND board.
“We just completed a survey of Phillippi Creek up to the Pinecraft area and are now awaiting the feasibility study (hopefully within the next week),” he wrote in that email. “This should expedite the process for determining how best to move forward with dredging. I appreciated the testimony yesterday.”
Later on Jan. 22, Cutsinger sent a second email to the SAND member, adding, “Just a reminder that it will be a process with several steps and decisions to be made. But getting this important data will help move things forward.”
A number of SAND members appeared before the commission after the Jan. 21 workshop presentations to repeat the concerns they voiced on Jan. 15. Southgate residents joined them.
Among the latter was Marian Pomeroy, who pointed out that she is a member of the county’s Stormwater Environmental Utility Advisory Committee. That group’s charge, as its webpage notes, is to “[s]upport and advise the Stormwater Environmental Utility in the development of Stormwater-related goals and objectives.”
She has lived on Phillippi Creek for 10 years in Southgate, Pomeroy told the commissioners; before that, she lived for 12 years on the creek in a different location. “So I think I’m pretty familiar with Phillippi Creek,” she pointed out. The waterway, she stressed, “is in dire need of dredging.”
Three homes on her street were destroyed by flooding from Tropical Storm Debby’s rainfall, Pomeroy said. The creek flows on both sides of her street, she noted; her street is within one of two islands in Southgate, she explained.
“Obviously, this was a very unusual, heavy rain event,” she continued. “I understand all that.”
However, she pointed out, a year ago, several of her neighbors attended a meeting of the Stormwater Environmental Utility Advisory Committee to discuss the problems with silting in Phillippi Creek. Yet, she said, nothing was done.
Given the workshop that day, Pomeroy continued, she is hopeful that action will be taken, so water will not keep backing up the creek and flowing into people’s homes.
“There’s never been such a diminished water flow [in the creek] as there is now,” she pointed out, referencing archival photos of the creek that are part of the county History Center’s collection. She described the scenes in those photos as having been taken “longer [ago] than all of us have been alive.”