Council To Review Canal Dredging

SOUTH TAMPA - Waterfront residents who want to tax themselves to pay for canal dredging say their proposal has strong support as it heads toward an Oct. 25 review by the city council.

But opposition and questions hang over the project, which has been discussed for years.

Up to 600 property owners each could be asked to pay an $8,000 assessment for dredging 13 canals in West Shore neighborhoods and two canals on Davis Islands. They would pay an additional annual fee estimated at $50 to $75 for canal maintenance.

The Tampa Canal Preservation and Restoration Association, a citizens' group working with city staff, aired its proposal at public meetings Monday and Wednesday at Plant High School.

Association co-chairwoman Christina Acosta, of South Bayside Drive, said she has heard from about half of the property owners since she began working on the project two years ago, with an estimated 87 percent in favor of the project.

Many of those who lingered to the end of Monday's three-hour meeting, however, said they oppose the assessment.

'I am pleased with the turnout,' Acosta said after the meeting, which drew about 150 people. 'People who were comfortable with the plan wanted to be on their way and that left a disproportionate number of naysayers.

'I continue to feel the masses really do want this project,' she said.

Opponents say a $1.3 million federal grant the city intends to use toward the estimated $6 million dredging bill should be used to restore natural estuaries rather than canals. They also say stormwater assessments they pay to the city should be used for cleaning up the waterways since city stormwater drains are clogging the canals.

City stormwater director Chuck Walter said the federal grant, which requires a $1 million city match, is to pay for removing silt dumped in the canals by stormwater pipes, but not to a navigable depth.

Since engineering work and spoil management already will be done and the contractor will be in place for the grant work, however, Walter said the assessment would provide enough money to allow for dredging to navigable depths.

Councilman John Dingfelder, who attended Monday's meeting, said he was concerned assessment supporters had been too selective about who got to sound off on the proposal until this week.

'I was pleased they were being inclusive and getting feedback from everybody,' he said. 'I'm glad they fixed that.'

Dingfelder said he expects supporters to push the council 'pretty hard' to move forward at the workshop Oct. 25, but he questions whether the work should proceed on a simple majority vote of property owners along each of the 15 canals.

'I think something closer to 60 percent would show more consensus,' Dingfelder said. 'And if you don't have enough canals to do, then the price is probably going to go crazy.'

Acosta said she doesn't expect the assessment to fluctuate much if not all the canals are included in the project.

Under the proposal, the city would dredge a 20-feet-wide by 3-feet-deep channel down each canal. Property owners who want dredging up to their docks and sea walls would have to pay for the extra work.

The $8,000 assessment could be paid in a lump sum, spread over 20 annual installments with interest or paid as a lien due when the property is sold.

Supporters need council approval by the end of the year to start the legal process to enact the assessment and keep the project on track to begin in late 2008 or early 2009.