BELLEAIR BEACH, Fla. (WFLA) — There were tense moments at Wednesday night’s public meeting in Belleair Beach.
This was as Pinellas County leaders continued asking residents to sign temporary easements for the impending beach nourishment project.
Ed Qualls lives in Redington Shores and got one of the letters himself.
“I love renourishing the beach, I don’t have problems with the equipment on my beach. Heck, what they’re asking for, FEMA did all through storm recovery. I had the biggest machines in the world on my property, I didn’t care,” he said. “I was happy to see stuff back.”
“I’m good with everyone loving the beach and renourishing it,” Qualls continued.
But he took issue with the wording in the paperwork the county is asking him to sign.
“They said it’s a temporary easement but the paperwork they sent me says it’s a perpetual easement,” he said. “So I wanted to get them to make it say temporary. I’m ready to sign.”
Pinellas County is using $125 million through the tourism development tax and state grants.
The rest of the funding is being reimbursed by the state.
The county is undertaking the enormous project, explaining it couldn’t strike a deal with the Army Corps of Engineers due to a new policy that mandates all residents along the beach consent to permanent easements.
The Army Corps of Engineers sent the following statement to 8 On Your Side:
“Federal shore protection projects are designed to absorb the brunt of hurricanes/tropical storms, thereby lessening damage and other consequences that would otherwise directly impact residents, infrastructure, and residential and commercial properties. To protect lives and ensure our national investment now and into the future here in Florida, Perpetual Easements are required on private lands necessary for full construction of the project in accordance with applicable laws. Just as a pot with holes in it does not hold water, Coastal Storm Risk Management projects are the same – They can fail to provide their designed protection if they have gaps in their construction. The project function, which provides erosion and storm surge risk management to landward facilities through the sacrifice of project fill material, depends on maintaining the horizontal and vertical dimensions of the project design. Permanent easements manage uncertainty because they ensure access along the entire project length for initial construction, continued nourishments, operations and maintenance, and hurricane and storm event responses to maintain maximum benefits.”
