Lido residents keep cool in renourishment debate

At Saturday’s Lido Key Residents Association meeting, the organization responded to opposition to a proposed Lido Beach renourishment project by focusing on the long game.

Several Siesta Key organizations and residents have declared their opposition to a proposed project that would renourish Lido Beach with sand from Big Pass, citing fear that Siesta Beach could be negatively affected. The plan, proposed by the city and spearheaded by the Army Corps of Engineers, is yet to be submitted for state approval and is years from potentially beginning, but groups have already begun to stake out their positions on the topic.

Lido residents were looking for a way to combat the opposition and publicize facts that supported the renourishment last month, but Assistant City Manager Marlon Brown told board member John Kirker to wait for the Army Corps of Engineers to finish a report on the projected impact of the project, currently expected by the end of May.

At that point, Kirker said, the city will begin to advocate more strongly for the project. He said it would be difficult for the residents to bite their tongues, but that it made sense to follow the city’s lead.

“This is a city project,” Kirker said. “This is not the Lido Residents Association’s project. We're going to benefit from working with the city.”

In the meantime, residents association Vice President Debbie Comer encouraged Lido residents to try to put Siesta stakeholders at ease regarding the project. She said that many people have a strong negative reaction to hearing the word “dredge,” and are unaware of facts surrounding the proposed project, including that it would use about 3% of the sand in Big Pass.

“We just want a tiny bit of our sand returned,” Comer said. “Let's make it a friendly discussion so that everybody wins.”

For more information about Lido Key Residents Association meeting, pick up a copy of Thursday’s Sarasota Observer.

Contact David Conway at [email protected].