Public Works staff continuing discussions with U.S. Army Corps to try to expedite permitting
Given the continued pleas from Sarasota County residents in regard to dredging needs on Phillippi Creek, Commissioner Mark Smith pulled three items from his board’s May 6 Consent Agenda of routine business matters to stress once again the emergency nature of the situation.
Each item pertained to an aspect of the clean-up of sediment and sandbars in the waterway.
As Spencer Anderson, director of the county’s Public Works Department explained, staff is still working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) on expediting the permits the county needs for more extensive work in Phillippi Creek.
When Commissioner Smith asked him, “Do you have any idea when shovels, barges, can be on the creek?” Anderson replied, “I don’t want to give false hope …”
However, Anderson speculated, “Late summer. Mid-summer.”
Referring to the planned dredging of the creek from U.S. 41 to Beneva Road, Anderson told Smith, USACE representatives have said their permitting process takes about 120 days, so staff will have to work through that.
Commissioner Teresa Mast took an opportunity during the discussion to urge county residents to contact their members of Congress to urge them to underscore to the USACE the county’s pressing needs. Mast emphasized that members of Congress do take note of such constituent contacts, by phone and email.
Other county commissioners pointed out during the discussion that they anticipate comprehensive updates on staff’s efforts will be provided during their next stormwater workshop, which has been scheduled for May 21.
Ultimately, the commissioners voted unanimously to approve all three Consent Agenda items.
The first of the three pertained to the dredging that the West Coast Inland Navigation District (WCIND), located in Venice, will undertake from U.S. 41 to the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway “and a point immediately upstream of the U.S. 41 crossing,” a county staff memo accompanying that item explained; the distance is approximately 1 mile, Anderson of Public Works told the board members.
That item called for the county to pay up to $3 million out of its Sarasota County Navigation Improvement Funds (CNIF) to WCIND to manage that portion of the dredging initiative.
The county staff memo noted that the CNIF balance is approximately $6.5 million. It added, “The not-to-exceed cost estimate of $3,000,000.00 is based upon the engineer’s highest opinion of probable cost (including the small upstream portion) plus a contingency. Any unspent funds will be returned to the CNIF following project completion.”
The second item involved the commission’s request that the WCIND board of commissioners reclassify Phillippi Creek from U.S. 41 to Pinecraft Park as a public waterway, which would allow WCIND to dredge that portion of the waterway, given WCIND’s mission.
The third Consent Agenda item involved commission authorization for county administrative execution of a cooperative agreement with WCIND so a consultant that the organization has hired — Cummins Cederberg Coastal & Marine Engineering — can complete the necessary pre-construction work for the dredging of Phillippi Creek from U.S. 41 to Beneva Road. The expense to the county was estimated at $240,896.
Cummins Cederberg has offices throughout Florida, its website says, including one in Sarasota.
The staff memo with that third item explained, “The completion of pre-construction activities does not obligate Sarasota County to proceed with dredging the waterway but will inform all parties (the adjacent property owners, the WCIND and Sarasota County) as to the scope and likely cost of maintenance dredging. The WCIND has advised that the main creek channel upstream of [U.S. 41] and side channels (oxbows) do not meet the criteria of a ‘Public Waterway’ pursuant to the governing rules; therefore, any maintenance dredging of the county extension will not be eligible to be funded by the County Navigation Improvement Fund.”
That was why the board members this week were asked to request the formal reclassification of that portion of Phillippi Creek.
All three items ultimately won unanimous County Commission approval.
The county and the Corps
During his exchange with Anderson of Public Works, Commissioner Smith sought clarification about the status of the necessary permitting for the dredging projects.
The holdup, Anderson explained, is the emergency permit needed from the USACE.
Both the county itself and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) readily provide emergency permits, Anderson pointed out. However, he said, he and his staff have continued to be engaged with the USACE in regard to its expedited permitting process.
“We’re working … to convince [USACE representatives] that we can attack the high spots in the creek,” most of which are between Bee Ridge Road and Beneva Road, Anderson said. Staff would use what he called “an appropriate width of dredging — we’re saying 50 feet in this case” — down to a depth of 4 feet, he explained, “keeping a reasonable distance from seawalls or docks, so we don’t [incur] any liability for those structures that are all private.”
Anderson stressed, “We are moving as fast as we can to get those high spots done.”
Smith told Anderson that when he visited the Pinecraft area, he saw dead trees “that are in the creek that need to be removed.”
The second phase of the work, Anderson told the commissioners, will have “a more uniform dredge template from U.S. 41 all the way to Beneva.” Since staff does not have existing permits for that work, Anderson said, that has been the focus of the discussions with the USACE. FDEP is not requiring any permits for the work, he noted.
The USACE’s position, Anderson explained, has been “ ‘There’s been years and years of accretion, and we can’t attribute it all [to the 2024 storm season].’ ”
Smith expressed frustration about the USACE’s perception of emergency situations. Although different people have different definitions of an emergency, Smith conceded, “We’re talking about an emergency because people’s houses were flooded.”
Staff hopes to have more materials to submit to the USACE later this week or next week, he added.
Smith then asked Anderson whether Anderson feels the commissioners should contact U.S. Rep. Greg Steube of Sarasota County, to try to spur the USACE into moving more quickly.
Smith added that he would welcome any ideas about expediting the process. “By mid-summer, it could be a real emergency, you know.”
Commissioner Tom Knight told Anderson, “We know you have a great relationship with the federal government.” Nonetheless, Knight said that if Anderson does “get bogged down” and needs help from the commissioners, he should let County Administrator Jonathan Lewis convey that to the board members.
“That’s what we’re here for,” Knight added, “to make those phone calls.”
Commissioner Mast pointed out that Phillippi Creek goes far beyond the areas that were the focus of the discussion that day. In her district, too, she told Anderson, “It has been impacted significantly … And I know you’re very aware of it.”
Moreover, Mast continued, addressing the audience in the Chambers of the R.L. Anderson Administration Center in Venice and those watching on TV or online, “You have the ability to contact your congressman. … I’m putting out a plea to please take the opportunity to request the expediting of this, so that we can legally … be in compliance [with federal permitting requirements].”
She herself had talked with Congressman Steube, Mast pointed out. Moreover, she said, Rob Lewis, the county’s governmental relations director, has been working with federal government representatives of Sarasota County to help with the county’s needs.
Commissioner Ron Cutsinger told Anderson, “Obviously, do whatever can be done [in terms of maintenance of waterways] before we get the permits.”
Addressing Anderson, too, Chair Joe Neunder added, “This has been a monumental undertaking and task,” to clean out Phillippi Creek. “Whatever you need,” Neunder said, “we’re ready, willing and able to support you and your staff …”
The original design of the creek
At one point, Smith told Anderson that, “listening to Stephen Suau,” the independent engineering consultant and former county stormwater employee who had investigated reasons for neighborhood flooding after the 2024 storms and offered recommendations for preventing future stormwater disasters, Smith said he believes “that the county has the original designs of [Phillippi] Creek back to the 1920s.”
Smith added, “My feeling is that we should restore that creek back to the original design,” with the understanding that the plan in that era related to the draining of farmland. “A good deal of that farmland is now impervious,” Smith pointed out, “so, to me, it’s even more important that we have the capacity in the creek … and all the tributaries that go into that [creek].”
Yet, in reading through the materials for the three items he had pulled from the Consent Agenda for discussion that day, Smith continued, it did not appear that that was the plan.
He asked Anderson whether restoring the creek to its original design would be the focus of a future initiative.
Anderson replied, “We have to have a standard for the scope of work that we’re doing.” The dredging plans will have to be adjusted in some areas because of constraints such as the seawalls and docks, he noted again. “Right now, in a lot of cases,” Anderson added, “the only thing holding up those seawalls is the sediment that’s in the creek.”
Further, Anderson explained, the “oxbows” that Southgate residents have discussed with the commissioners were added in later years, when new housing developments were underway.
Staff also is reviewing the cross sections of the creek dating to the late 1990s and early 2000s, Anderson said, when the county staff was developing the stormwater model it uses to try to prevent flooding from new construction.
“But the oxbows will be dredged?” Smith asked.
“Correct,” Anderson replied.
Following the discussion Smith made a motion to approve the three Consent Agenda items that he had pulled, and Mast seconded it. The motion passed 5-0.