PROPERTY VALUES

St. Lucie faces 2-year deadline to find $8.3 million to pay for beach- erosion repair

Keona Gardner
Treasure Coast Newspapers

Editor's note: This story was modified from its original version to correct information about easements needed from three condominium associations.

ST. LUCIE COUNTY — The county needs more beachfront property owners to donate land for a public easement in order to reduce its cost of a beach nourishment project.

The goal is to lower the county's annual share of the three-year project from $8.3 million to $2.7 million. The county’s first payment is due July 1, 2021, according to county records.

The county has received no formal approval of any easements from the three condominium associations — Miramar, Turtle Reef and Empress. However, the plans St. Lucie submitted to U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, show the condominium areas as potential easements. 

The more public easements the county gets, the more the Corps will pay, lowering the county's share.

“We have no say over (the approval) of the easements,” County Commissioner Frannie Hutchinson said. “The Corps still has to sign off on these easements. And this is going to increase their (contribution), so what do you think they’re saying?”

The county needs the money because the Federal Emergency Management Agency withdrew $9.5 million it promised for after learning the Corps also was funding the project.

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Maggie Rivera, of Fort Pierce, helps her dog Lily down the eroded shoreline Monday, April 18, 2016, on South Beach at Jetty Park in Fort Pierce. Rivera said she didn't realize the erosion was so bad when she decided to bring her visiting daughter to the beach.

More:What will it cost to keep our beaches in place — and how can we possibly afford it?

The county has received a $3 million grant from the state, and a second, matching state grant of $3.4 million. The match for the secoiond grant is $4.4 million.

The beaches lose about $10,000 a day in sand, County Administrator Howard Tipton estimates.

“This is money that the minute you put it down, it goes out,” Deputy County Administrator Jeff Bremer said.

County staff continues to pursue creating a special taxing district to help pay for beach nourishment projects. It would be applied only to property owners on the east side of State Road A1A.

The county, in addition to placing more sand on the beach, wants to build T-groins, hard structures installed perpendicular to the shoreline, to collect and keep sand in certain locations.

The wave action at the inlet funnels sand away from beaches below it, creating erosion.