Army Corps meets with Pinellas residents over beach renourishment plan

CLEARWATER, Fla. - The Army Corps of Engineers held a two-hour meeting with residents of Pinellas County, many of whom are suspicious of signing easements to allow the federal government to renourish several beaches.

The Army Corps needs 461 easements - or permissions - from residents that own land where the projects must take place, in order to start a renourishment project in the works since 2017.

Pinellas beaches are in need of renourishment, according to officials.

So far, only 48 percent of residents are on board with their hopes of beefing up beaches on Clearwater Beach Island, Long Key, and Sand Key. The mayor himself, Patrick Soranno, signed the easement, but acknowledges that wasn't the prevailing sentiment at the meeting.

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"The feeling from a lot of our residents, at least in Indian Shores, is they are giving up property rights," shared Soranno.

Col. James Booth listened to residents for two hours.

The whole exercise has become even more urgent, the Corps said, now that Hurricane Idalia has swept away a still undetermined amount of sand, including entire dunes, like near where Christopher Hollands lives in Pass-a-Grille.

"I think the beach is our most fabulous asset," said Hollands. "Our number one infrastructure, I am very interested in making sure it gets protected."

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The Corps of Engineers sent Col. James Booth to listen to residents. He said that each passing storm makes the projects more expensive and more complicated.

It's taking some convincing to get residents on board with the plan.

"I'll stay out of what's fair or not and what's going on with the real estate that needs to be acquired by the county for us to move forward," said Booth. "But we'll hold to the policy that we need 100% of the real estate access so that we can move forward with the project."

Col. Booth said he will be bringing feedback from residents back up the chain of command.