Hurricane Dorian spared Hutchinson Island beaches from a wipeout that would have required emergency sand and dune restoration.
But St. Lucie County officials and taxpayers still must figure out a way to raise $1 million per year to replace sand washing off the beaches between Normandy Beach and the Martin County line.
Several visitors to the “South County Beaches” in the aftermath of Dorian said they believe all county property owners should chip in to help the island property owners pay for beach restoration.
“We all use the beaches, so we should all pay for them to stay beautiful,” said Kelly White of Port St. Lucie, who was visiting Waveland Beach with her toddler. “A little bit of extra tax, a few cents on $1,000, it’s not a bad idea.”
Among the options county commissioners are considering is increasing the tax rate for the county’s Erosion District, which charges property owners throughout the county 9-1/4 cents per $1,000 of assessed value to help pay for beach maintenance.
The commissioners are also considering establishing a special taxing district and a special assessment district for the 3-mile-long stretch between Normandy Beach and the Martin County line. Real estate there accounts for about 5 percent of St. Lucie County’s taxable value. “I’d be supportive of starting the process whether we’re levying or not because we’re running out of time,” said Commissioner Chris Dzadovsky during the Aug. 13 meeting.
The commissioners have until the end of the year to approve a Municipal Services Taxing Unit for property taxes and/or a Municipal Services Benefit Unit for special assessments. St. Lucie County must raise $53 million to $117 million in the next 50 years to pay for three major sand restorations on the South County Beaches, county records show. That includes a $22.8 million project set to begin in summer 2021.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is requiring the county to pay $5 million of its $8.3 million share of the costs by July 1, 2021. The federal government is paying $8 million and the state provided $6.5 million.
The new special assessment and/or property tax could be used to finance the $5 million payment to the Army Corps, said County Attorney Dan McIntyre.
“You might end up doing both,” McIntyre said during the Aug. 13 meeting. “It seems to me like you want to keep all your options open.”
The county might be able to reduce its share of the costs by up to $5.5 million by establishing three new public beach accesses with parking lots between Normandy Beach and the Martin County line.
The new accesses were proposed between the Empress and Princess condominiums, at the Miramar condominium and at the Turtle Reef Club, county records show.
County officials are coordinating with condo association leaders and Army Corps officials to establish the public beach accesses, said Coastal Engineer Joshua Revord.
If the effort is completely successful, the Army Corps would pay $14.8 million, the state would pay $5.2 million and St. Lucie County would pay $2.8 million. The project cost may also be cut to $17 million from $22.8 million if inflation and contingency estimates can be reduced, Revord said.
Two visitors to Dollman Beachside park, Carolyn Nester of Lakewood Park and Katie Porter of Port St. Lucie, said they were pleasantly surprised Hurricane Dorian didn’t cause more damage to the dunes.
But they offered differing ideas about who should pay to keep sand on the beaches. “It’s not fair that just because you live on the beach you have to pay for it,” Porter said. “I think it would make more sense to do the whole county.”
But Nester said the beachfront property owners should be required to allow public access to the beaches, if all county property owners help pay to replace the sand in front of their real estate.
“The only problem I have with everybody paying, as long as the people who live in the condos are trying to make a law that we can’t sit on the beaches, they’re trying to privatize it – I don’t think that’s fair,” Nester said.
“These are county beaches. I think they should be open to everybody.”
