Restoration cost may fall on property owners

If Destin wants sand on its eroded beaches in 2008 and 2009, beachfront property owners may have to pay extra for it.

At Monday’s City Council meeting, Mayor Craig Barker said the city is still fighting to reverse the cuts to Florida’s beach restoration program, which would eliminate the state’s $800,000 share of Destin’s $13.5 million restoration plan. Barker worries that the budget-cutters might win.

“It’s incumbent on City Council to contemplate a Plan B,” Barker said. He said the best alternative at this point would be a special assessment on beachfront owners.

In addition to state funding, the plan worked out by Okaloosa County’s Tourist Development Council last year would have generated $7.85 million by increasing the TDC’s bed tax and $4.85 million by creating a municipal services benefit unit, a special tax district along the south side of U.S. 98. The money would have covered dredging sand to place along the beach and $700,000 to monitor the beach for seven years.

The TDC told The Log that the proposed cuts mean it will have to recalculate the budget for both Destin and Okaloosa Island to increase the share paid by the beachfront owners. County Beach Projects Coordinator Jim Trifilio has said restoration could start by the end of the year, but rewriting the funding plan could delay that.

Barker told The Log that if the TDC does have everything in place by the end of the year, the city needs to be ready, so city staff will have to begin the groundwork for a special assessment immediately.

Unlike the county-imposed MSBU, the affected property owners will have to request an assessment, then a majority would have to vote for it.

“Our charter is crystal clear,” City Manager Greg Kisela said. “If you don’t get at least 50 percent of the affected property owners, the City Council can’t even consider a special assessment.”

The special assessment, Kisela said, would cost each property owner 10 to 30 percent more than the fee imposed by the MSBU. He said the city might be able to save $1 million on the project by working with Eglin Air Force Base: Eglin, he’s been told, intends to go forward with restoring its Okaloosa Island property, so the city and the military might be able to split the cost of bringing a dredge to the area.

 “The beaches on the western reaches of Destin are so eroded that beach restoration is one of the most important projects this city could undertake,” Barker said. “An investment in beach restoration in Destin is an investment in our future.”

Kisela said Monday night, however, that “our preference remains Plan A.”