Madeira Beach leaders work to speed up permit process as residents struggle months after hurricanes

There are some signs of recovery in Madeira Beach, like the live music at the Saltwater Hippie Beach Bar, and restaurants packed on a Thursday night. 

Some businesses are back open, but some are still boarded up. Several homes are boarded up too, and a lot of residents, like many others in surrounding cities and towns, haven’t been able to start repairs, because they’re waiting on permits.

READ: More than 10,000 households living in hotels after Helene, Milton through FEMA program

What they're saying:

Madeira Beach Mayor Anne-Marie Brooks said city staff started a new phase of the permitting process to try to expedite things this week.

"Residents come in and are able to sit down and work through the entire permit process from submittal to issuance," she said. "Our hope is that the majority of residents will be able to leave same day with a permit," Brooks said.

If not, they’ll leave knowing when they’ll get their permit. Hopefully, Brooks said, that’s within two weeks. 

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Brooks said they didn’t start this process sooner, because FEMA’s process held them back.

"FEMA comes along with a lot of bureaucratic red tape and oversight that makes the process much more cumbersome, much more paperwork, much more things to follow. And what FEMA doesn't allow is it doesn't allow our professionals that are hired within the city to make decisions based off of their professional judgment," Brooks said. 

"If FEMA's oversight was not so scary, for lack of a better term, because the fear is that if you don't follow FEMA, that they're going to come back and punish the residents and the city doesn’t want that. I would say the biggest challenge we have is the bureaucratic red tape of FEMA," she said.

Dig deeper:

Brooks said that’s part of the reason she and the mayors of Pinellas’ beaches are writing a joint letter, through the Barrier Islands Governmental Council, to President Donald Trump asking for help.

MORE: Cleanup 'finally' begins at St. Pete's Albert Whitted Airport months after hurricanes

"I can tell you what it will represent from us is the bureaucratic red tape. Just what I've said, without that oversight and fear that FEMA is going to come in and not take the professional opinion of our professionals, but is going to try to play, for lack, Monday morning quarterback on what we've done, we want that to go away," Brooks said.

Local perspective:

According to the city, 1,831 permit applications have been submitted, and the city has issued 1,247 since September 27. That includes Yarisi Valero, who got her permit last week after months of waiting. She said she’s glad local leaders are reaching out to the president.

"I am very happy that the mayors are standing together and are going to join forces," Valero said. "Send the message all the way to the top because we are good citizens. We pay taxes, and we do everything we have to do. We are good residents of our cities, and we need help. This has to change. I mean, I hope not, but if [a hurricane] may happen again. Every time this happens, we cannot be out of our homes for months. So, I am happy to see the mayors are standing up for their residents. It's amazing."

What you can do:

Right now, residents can come to City Hall in Madeira Beach on Mondays and Wednedays from 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. to get help with the permitting process. Brooks said in the next few weeks, though, they’re expanding to six days a week.

What's next:

Brooks said in addition to businesses reopening, the Gulf Beaches Public Library is reopening on February 10. The Seafood Festival is coming back in March. Fishing tournaments will start up again soon, and there was a collegiate softball tournament on the fields in the city this past weekend.

"It shows our resilience and our regrowth. Madeira Beach is strong, and we are a resilient community, and in the midst of all of this chaos and destruction that we've had, the one thing that I can tell you I see every single day is residents that are just amazing individuals happy to be here, happy to be home, looking forward to getting back home and to have the events come back full force, it just shows who we are," Brooks said. 

The Source: The information in this story was gathered through an interview with Madeira Beach Mayor Anne-Marie Brooks. 

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