Pinellas County has a plan for beach renourishment — but it's up to homeowners to approve it

Pinellas County is working on a plan to restore its beaches after back-to-back storms washed away protective sand dunes. The county said it's been more than a decade since some beaches have been fully renourished.

The county said the last two storm seasons caused significant damage to the beaches, and many are in need of nourishment. It added that this is a project that it can't do alone, so it's encouraging property owners to sign off on helping protect barrier islands from another big storm.

In Redington Shores, Mayor Lisa Hendrickson said sand dunes are hard to find on Sand Key.

“The storms took away most of the beach that we had,” Hendrickson said.

Hendrickson said her town is still recovering from Helene and Milton.

“We have many, many houses that have been damaged by the storms,” Hendrickson said.

And, it’s still vulnerable to another big storm.

“Without the dunes, the storm surge has nothing to hit before it goes over the seawall,” the mayor explained.

Back in April, Hendrickson showed me the poor condition of the dunes. Now, the Stobincki family said they've never seen the beach so flat.

“We had about two feet of water in our garage and the street was probably three to four feet of water,” Marek Stobnicki said.

The couple asked recovery crews to make them a new sand dune. Hendrickson wants it for the entire beach, but property owners have to give legal permission first.

[babe.ethereal]

these homeowners that are so greedy they wont even allow the county to protect their homes or place sand dunes? they deserved to get their homes washed away at that rate.