Update: Stormwater Workshop #3 Postmortem

Quick update from Stormwater Workshop #3 with the Board of County Commissioners yesterday and our brief meeting with County staff this morning.

Level of Service

Before the meeting, we published a document we've been working on for a few weeks now. The Phillippi Creek Level of Service Proposal has been sent to the commissioners and county staff. You can review it here. We are very hopeful the maintenance part will be considered; unfortunately, the policy level is off the table for reasons below.

A lot came up in the BCC Workshop about expanding the County's lack of a Level of Service which includes Stormwater Dredging. As we communicated before this workshop, the County says that Creek Maintenance is not something they are responsible for and, according to the presentation, Public Works is asking for $10M per year in revenue to fund waterway maintenance projects county wide.

Having a Level of Service would permit/make the county dredge more of these areas as part of routine maintenance, and this would be a full stormwater dredge (as close to shore to shore as possible).

Big thanks to one of our partners, Connie Neeley in Forest Lakes, who researched an ordinance from 2022 and got it into Commissioner Smith’s hands. Ordinance basically says the County Stormwater must maintain the creek and use our Stormwater funds to do so -- Stormwater and Public Works have made clear that the creek is not part of their purview. This caused a lot of confusion, and commissioners will be reviewing this ordinance and coming back with more information and direction for staff at a later date. Keeping an eye on this – great find by Connie.

The County will be working on a Level of Service document to give to the Commissioners to review. We are monitoring this closely.

Dredging Project Update

Below you will find a project map for the dredging projects that affect South Gate and other areas along the creek.

Phase 1 is the "High Spots" emergency dredging project. These areas will be dredged using the Resilient SRQ funds in areas that have historic permitting. This is a navigational dredge which will be at 50' x 4' deep.

Phase 2 is the yellow line that accompanies the map and traces down the main channel of the creek. This is also a navigational dredge which will be 30' x 4' deep (where permissible - and avoiding private structures like docks and seawalls). It includes both of the River Ridge (40 ft wide) and Mineola (90 ft wide) canals and the Seclusion Lake oxbow.

This project will take place in conjunction with the Phase 1 project and hopefully overlap, but please keep in mind these projects will likely take years to complete. There will be no shovels in the creek anytime soon. 

In all cases of seawalls, the county will leave a minimum of 10 ft of existing sediment as they do not want the liability of uncovering a failing seawall, which would then be their responsibility to repair.

Keep in mind, the River Ridge canal is 40 ft wide, and the county will leave 10 ft of sediment on the seawalls. That leaves a 20 ft channel down the middle. The Mineola canal is 90 ft wide, so the county will leave significantly more sediment next to those seawalls (30 ft). We are still pushing for more alternatives for this, but since this is a Navigational Dredge limited to 30', it would not benefit anyone for flooding. This is basic work for navigation only and will have only cost benefits to completing a “correct” stormwater dredge at a later date.

Updating Stormwater Policy

For dredging to matter, we need to change what goes into the creek, and to do that, we need policy for construction and development to be updated. The State has passed SB108, which effectively prohibits local governments from enacting ordinances that impose more restrictive or burdensome comprehensive plan amendments, land development regulations, or procedures related to development for a period from August 1, 2024, to October 1, 2027. This bill is on the governor's desk to sign. I suspect it will be signed any day now, probably at the beginning of storm season for maximum political effect.

In effect, our local government is completely neutered when it comes to updating stormwater policy, which would work to prevent sediment from entering the creek until late 2027. They won't even be able to talk about this until that time.

Next Steps

Nadia and I are continuing our work with commissioners and County staff to meet the needs of the community.

That is all we have for this week. Have a great holiday weekend!

Why join?

South Gate is a community of 2000+ homes with borders of Beneva Road and Tamaimi Trail (East and West), and Hyde Park and Bee Ridge (North and South).

The South Gate Community Association (SGCA) was founded and incorporated as a not-for-profit voluntary association in 1956. Community assets include a beautiful property on the circle at Tuttle Avenue and Siesta Drive.  The five acre property is on the shore of Phillippi Creek and includes a historic Victor Lundy Community Center and swimming pool.  The Community Center uses include: South Gate Community Sponsored Events and a public rental venue for: Weddings and Receptions, Anniversary Parties, Celebrations, Meetings and Worship Services.  The pool is open during Spring through Fall and available to South Gate Community Association members at a nominal seasonal fee.

All monies raised by the South Gate Community Association go back into the community "to beautify said South Gate, and for the purpose of promoting social and recreational gatherings for its members, their families and friends, and toward the end of cementing a good fellowship and a social cooperative spirit in this community."

The above quote from our 1956 community charter drives our mission at the South Gate Community Association and the allocation of funds raised.  The funds raised through the voluntary memberships, pool memberships and event rentals go to maintain the assets (building, property and pool) maintaining community value (deed restriction enforcement and community beautification) and social activities.