Siesta, Lido residents seek answers from Army Corps

Despite the fears of some Lido Key residents, Siesta Key Association President Catherine Luckner said the organization won’t be fighting to end efforts to renourish Lido Beach when the group hosts the Army Corps of Engineers tonight.

The Army Corps of Engineers is meeting with groups in the area from Dec. 5 to Dec. 7, to provide information about a proposed Lido Beach renourishment project. As part of the project, a joint effort between the Army Corps and the city of Sarasota, sand would be dredged from Big Pass and New Pass and installed along the Lido shoreline to protect critically eroded portions. Three groins, extending from the shore into the water, would be installed to slow erosion.

At a meeting last month, members of the Lido Key Residents Association identified Siesta Key residents as a primary obstacle to the project’s completion. Big Pass, located between Lido and Siesta keys, has never been dredged before, and residents have raised questions about the effects the project might have on Siesta beaches.

Luckner said she was surprised to find out that Lido residents saw Siesta Key as a force mobilizing to defeat the beach renourishment efforts. She said SKA questioned the Army Corps’ dredging plan, but that the group was willing to work with Lido to find a solution that worked for both parties.

“We don't have a disagreement with the fact that Lido needs help with some areas that are critically eroded,” Luckner said.

That might not be a unanimous point of agreement among SKA board members. At Tuesday’s Siesta Key Village Association meeting, SKA board member Peter van Roekens questioned the status of the Lido shoreline after visiting the beach over the weekend.

"(Parts of Lido Beach) don’t appear to be critically eroded at all," van Roekens said.

Luckner said a more critical point of emphasis for the SKA was the approval of a professional independent peer review of the Army Corps’ plan. Although the Corps’ most recent models of the project’s effects on surrounding shorelines aren’t completed yet, the SKA is calling for a second opinion to verify the data.

City Engineer Alex DavisShaw said she has seen the data the group has collected in the past nine months, and she believes the plan should ultimately satisfy all sides.

“The Army Corps knows the idea of this project was to protect Lido without negatively impacting Siesta,” DavisShaw said. “That was always the No. 1 goal; that’s what they need to show everybody.”

DavisShaw also said the Army Corps had agreed to let the firm Coastal Technology Corp. review its models and plans.

John Kirker, a member of the Lido Key Residents Association, said the group was also waiting to receive some answers from an Army Corps presentation Dec. 6. He said Lido residents were interested in accelerating the timeline of the project, which is still several years away from being funded, according to DavisShaw.

“I don't know what's going to happen,” Kirker said. “It still may be three, four, five years away — if you come down here and look at this beach, we're not going to last that long.”

Contact David Conway at [email protected]