Siesta Key Condominium Council leaders alert their members to information on county website
This week, leaders of the Siesta Key Condominium Council (SKCC) informed their members that Sarasota County Government staff has created a webpage through which residents may track the progress of the Siesta Key Drainage Improvements Study that the County Commission approved in a unanimous vote on Aug. 25.
The Oct. 13 Council newsletter pointed out, “When the SKCC first reported that this study was planned, few heard of it. The SKCC has been advocating for this even before recent major hurricanes and warning that flooding on the Key was becoming a greater problem. After Hurricanes Helene and Milton, and the resultant flooding, stormwater became the number one infrastructure concern on the Key.”
The Council represents about 100 associations with more than 7,000 households on the barrier island, Acting President Neal Schleifer has told the County Commission.
To visit the new page on the county website, click here.
County staff notes on that webpage that the consultant handling the study, WSP USA Inc., is anticipated to complete its work by the end of August 2027. As The Sarasota News Leader has reported, WSP USA has multiple offices in Florida, including locations in Tampa, Orlando and Fort Myers.
A Sept. 28 update on the status of the project says that WSP USA “is working on Task 1 activities, which include reviewing existing data (i.e. reviewing historic permits, as-built plans, latest stormwater model, existing stormwater inventory, historical flood complaints, and previous study). The anticipated duration of Task 1 is four weeks.”
As part of Task 1, WSP also has been asked to coordinate with the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) “to gather information on areas that were originally designed and maintained by the state, such as Midnight Pass Road and Higel Avenue.”
In late 2018, as the News Leader reported, the County Commission formally voted to participate in a “road swap” with FDOT, which involved transferring authority over River Road between U.S. 41 and Interstate 75 to the state, in exchange for the county’s assuming authority over the roads on Siesta Key, though the bridges were excluded. The goal of that action was to speed up long-needed improvements on River Road. FDOT leaders had pointed out to county commissioners that as long as River Road remained a county road, the state would be unable to make a River Road project one of its priorities.
Further, the county webpage points out that WSP USA “shall identify additional Flooding Areas of Concern,” with the total not to exceed 15, “based on existing model results, roadway classifications, level of service (LOS) analysis results, flood depths, documented flooding problems, and previously identified flooding areas in the Roberts Bay North Coastal Watershed Management Plan Final Report that do not have conceptual solutions already developed.”
The graphic below shows the seven Flooding Areas of Concern originally listed in the Scope of Work for the initiative.
A copy of the Roberts Bay report is available for review on the webpage. As that document explains, “The Roberts Bay North Coastal watershed is located along the coastal fringes of the Phillippi Creek and Matheny Creek basins and includes the barrier island known as Siesta Key. The watershed study area encompasses 5.9 square miles in northwest Sarasota County. A small portion (approximately 0.5 square mile) of the watershed, on the north end of Roberts Bay North Coastal, is within the jurisdiction of the City of Sarasota.”
Further, that report points out, “This urban watershed is almost completely built up — consisting mostly of single-family homes,
townhouses, condominiums, commercial development along US-41 and portions of Siesta Key, and numerous hotels/resorts along Siesta Key’s beaches. The watershed is flat and ranges in elevation from just below sea level to approximately 30 feet (NAVD 88) at the northeast
watershed boundary.”
A fee schedule listed in the formal work assignment for WSP USA shows the total budget for the project to be $446,855. That expense was provided to the commissioners before they approved the hiring of the consulting firm.