Dear Redington Shores Property Owners:
The Sand Key project along Indian Rocks Beach, Indian Shores and Redington Shores was last fully nourished in 2012. In 2018 a partial nourishment was completed but with gaps through our communities because many residents were unwilling to sign the Army Cops public easement. As many of you know there was little to no beach prior to the first nourishments in the early 1990’s. They key to having successful beach projects is to have a constant supply of new sand through nourishments to the beach. Successive nourishments every 6 years had built up a wide beach prior to the disruption in nourishment and the effects of the last few storm seasons. The County has worked to find a solution with the Army Corps to continue nourishing the beach but to date our efforts have been unsuccessful.
These last two storm seasons have caused significant damages to our beaches and the surrounding communities. While we continue to work with the Army Corps, the County is designing and seeking and emergency permit for a County lead project to nourish the full project template in case no other option prevails. This permit will likely have a very small window of construction, so to be ready for this project we are seeking easements from property owners that did not sign previously. The permitting process is moving quickly and once we are ready to go to bid, areas that are not constructible due to a lack of easements will be removed from the project. if you are not sure if an easement has been signed, you can check here: https://pinellas.gov/coastal-management-easements/. This easement is different from what was requested before so please read it carefully. This easement doesn’t include public access and use; it is just for the construction and maintenance of the beach nourishment and dune. If you are not interested in having a dune restored or constructed in conjunction with the nourishment, please contact us immediately and we can provide you with an alternate easement, the other terms are non-negotiable. This will likely be our final attempt to obtain an easement, future projects will focus on areas where we have a constructible project.
The granting of this easement is voluntary on your part; however, without your easement, nourishment of your property and possibly the surrounding area, may not move forward. If the County does not receive enough easements, it could put large areas of beach that were previously nourished in jeopardy. Knowing the critically important storm protection, environmental, and economic benefits of beach nourishment, please sign your easement and encourage your local government and other property owners in your community to support the project and to grant easements so the project can proceed. Please download the document for direction on filling out the easement.
Sincerely,
John Bishop, PhD
Coastal Management Coordinator
Public Works
Environmental Management Division