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Anna Maria discusses mangrove regulations

Anna Maria considers regulating mangroves

Written by Joe Hendricks on . Posted in Anna Maria, Community News, Featured.

ANNA MARIA – Building Depart­ment General Manager Dean Jones is leading the city’s efforts to join Holmes Beach, Bradenton Beach and Longboat Key in adopting and self-enforcing local mangrove regulations.

The multi-municipality regulatory efforts were first discussed during the April 17 Coalition of Barrier Island Elected Officials (CBIEO) meeting in Longboat Key. During that meeting, Anna Maria Mayor Dan Murphy proposed that the four barrier island municipalities work together to establish a local mangrove regulation program that would supersede the regulations currently enacted and enforced by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP).

Jones also attended the meeting and on April 25, at Murphy’s request, he provided the Anna Maria City Commission with an overview of the mangrove regulation and enforce­ment efforts to be pursued.

Anna Maria discusses mangrove regulations
Building Department General Manager Dean Jones is leading Anna Maria’s pursuit of local mangrove regulations. – Joe Hendricks | Sun

Jones’ presentation referenced a much-publicized mangrove removal event that occurred in late 2023 at a canal-side home at 111 Gull Drive in Anna Maria. The presentation included photos of the property before and after the mangroves were removed to make way for a new seawall.

“Part of what brought this process about was the fact that mangroves had been destroyed by a homeowner from out of state that felt they needed a seawall and didn’t really understand how important mangroves are to our ecosystem,” Jones said.

Another presentation slide listed the five Florida counties, one Florida city and one Florida town that have enacted their own local mangrove regulation and enforcement programs since 1996. Jones said of those seven, only Sarasota County’s mangrove program remains active.

Commissioner Charlie Salem asked Jones why the other mangrove enforcement programs faded away.

Jones said some people he spoke with didn’t even know who started their local mangrove programs and whether they ended due to a lack of resources or a lack of interest.

“The good thing is DEP will allow us to enforce our own mangrove ordinances, but we have to make sure we have the resources to do so,” Jones said.

Jones said he’ll be working in unison with Holmes Beach Planning and Zoning Administrator Chad Minor, Bradenton Beach Building Official Darin Cushing and Longboat Key Planning, Zoning and Building Director Allen Parsons.

Regarding FDEP requirements for local mangrove enforcement, one presentation slide said, “To receive delegation, a local govern­ment must demonstrate that it has sufficient resources and procedures for the adequate administration and enforcement of a delegated mangrove-regulatory program. This does not preclude a delegated local government from imposing stricter substantive standards or more demanding procedural requirements for mangrove trimming or alteration outside of riparian mangrove fringe areas.”

The presentation listed several next steps to be taken. Interlocal agreements must be established with all four participating municipalities and uniform guidelines must be adopted to provide continuity regard­ing administration and enforcement, including the fines and penalties levied on violators.

The municipalities must meet educational requirements and administrative guidelines and enforcement and communication protocols must be developed between the four municipalities to help intercept possible violations before they occur, or in the early stages of the occurrence.

“We need to have continuity across all the cities if we’re going to make this work,” Jones said. “Mangroves are a huge part of our ecosystem. When we remove them, bad things happen. The water gets worse and the wildlife goes away. We have the ability to protect our mangroves locally. We don’t have to let what happened at 111 Gull happen again. We can have some control over it.”

After noting that he also attended the CBIEO meeting, Salem thanked Murphy for his leadership and he suggested gathering more information about Sarasota County’s mangrove regulations and enforcement efforts.

During public input, Anna Maria resident Wayne Patterson thanked Jones and said, “I live right around the corner from that last decimated mangrove effort.” He asked how the city regulates mangroves in conjunction with property owners’ desire to install seawalls.

Commissioner Mark Short noted the city commission adopted a seawall ordinance a couple of years ago that states any new seawall installed must be installed landward of any mangroves that border the property – and doing so doesn’t reduce the total lot coverage allowed.

Patterson noted that didn’t happen at 111 Gull.

“They were removed before the permit for the seawall was applied for,” Short said. “Currently the city has no remedies. We always thought DEP would be the ones to remedy the situation. In my opinion, they’re not doing their job.”

Murphy then said, “At 111 Gull he had a permit from DEP. He did not have a seawall permit yet, but he had a permit to pull out all those mangroves. That’s what we’re trying to do here to preclude that from happening again. Otherwise, it’s going to keep happen­ing,” Murphy said.

“Until we have local control,” Jones added.

Salem then said, “Because DEP doesn’t recognize man-made canals as part of this protection, that’s why they were allowed to remove those mangroves. We would be able to prohibit that kind of removal in those man-made canals.”

When asked what happens if one or more of the barrier island municipalities can’t agree on the mangrove regula­tions and enforcement measures later proposed, Murphy said, “We move right on. We need to get something done. In that meeting there was a pretty thorough understanding of what we needed to do and why we needed to do it. If somebody decides to back out, they’re on their own and the other cities will move forward.”

PAST PRESENTATION

This is not the first time the city of Anna Maria has inquired about estab­lishing a local mangrove enforcement program. In 2020, FDEP representa­tive Hannah Westervelt and the Anna Maria Commission participated in a mangrove trimming workshop.

During the workshop, Westervelt said, “Any local government can get the delegation of authority to regulate trim­ming and alteration of mangroves, but a local agency has to demonstrate they have the resources and the procedures in place. To establish that local program, you have to submit a written request for delegation to the department.”

Related coverage: 

Mayors propose to regulate mangroves

Feds issue approval for mangrove removal

Mayors propose to regulate mangroves

Mayors propose to regulate mangroves

Written by Leslie Lake on . Posted in Anna Maria Island, Community News.

LONGBOAT KEY – The mayors of the three Anna Maria Island cities and Longboat Key are considering making a joint application to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) to obtain local control over mangrove regulations.

The discussion took place at the Coalition of Barrier Island Elected Officials (BIEO) meeting on April 17 at Longboat Key Town Hall, and followed a presentation by Suncoast Waterkeeper Executive Director Dr. Abbey Tyrna.

Tyrna began her presentation by displaying a 1940s-era aerial photo of the north end of Anna Maria Island, which showed a lagoon lined with mangroves.

“I wanted to show you this because later you’re going to see where mangroves were removed from a place that is now on what they call a manmade canal,” she said. “From the 1940s you can see there were a lot of naturally-occurring mangroves.”

In the 1990s, a large amount of mangroves were removed during a period of development, she said.

“Most of that was occurring on the Sarasota Bay side of things,” she said. “At the time mangroves decreased by 26%.”

She said that number has increased exponentially with further development.

“Canals are a particular focus, because the mangroves are vulnerable right now to development,” she said. “Older homes are developed, out with them goes not only the older home, but also the mangrove area.”

Any mangrove in a canal system can be removed under the 1996 Mangrove Trimming and Preservation Act, she said.

“So the state will allow that removal” in Manatee County, Tyrna said, adding that it’s different in Sarasota County, because officials there have opted to accept the delegation of enforcement of the 1996 Mangrove Trimming and Preservation Act. The county does not allow mangroves to be removed on manmade canals without mitigation.

Tyrna then displayed a photo of a home at 111 Gull Drive in Anna Maria prior to its development and the subsequent removal of 116 feet of mangroves, which was allowed under an FDEP seawall exemption.

“You’ve probably seen 111 Gull Drive in the news,” Tyrna said. “Here’s 111 Gull Drive before the development with the mangroves lining the shoreline.”

She then showed a photo of the Gull Drive property following the mangrove removal there under an FDEP seawall exemption.

“You can see all the trees that used to line the coast are now gone,” she said. “This isn’t happening in a vacuum. There are property listings where it says ‘on a manmade canal. Mangroves will be removed.’ That means there is a lack of understanding about how beneficial they are.”

Tyrna said mangrove removal is a crisis occurring throughout the Suncoast in the rivers and bays. Suncoast Waterkeeper in the last year received 18 violation reports about the removal of mangroves.

“We need strong local policies that protect our wetland systems,” Tyrna said. “The good news is, local governments can actually take delegation and enforcement of the 1996 Mangrove Trimming and Preservation Act.”

She listed municipalities that have done so, which included Sarasota County and Sanibel.

“Sanibel is a barrier island much like your own and has a great robust program that puts education at the forefront of its delegation,” she said.

At the conclusion of Tyrna’s talk, Anna Maria Mayor Dan Murphy asked what the first steps would be if a municipality, or all the towns on the Island, wanted to accept delegation of mangrove enforcement.

Tyrna suggested Murphy speak to Sanibel and Sarasota County officials and refer to the state statute which outlines the delegation application process.

Hannah Westerveldt from the FDEP mangrove division will be giving a presentation at a Longboat Key work meeting on Monday, May 20, according to Town Manager Howard Tipton.

“We could continue the conversation then,” he said.

“I wonder if we could do this under the auspices of the barrier islands (BIEO), where we band together,” Murphy said, noting that while Anna Maria likely couldn’t afford to set up the program alone, the four cities coming together could be a viable option.

“One of us could house the function and others could, through an interlocal agreement, avail themselves of that,” Longboat Key Mayor Ken Schneier said.

Schneier asked Tyrna to send him program information from Sarasota County and said he would distribute it to Murphy, as well as to Holmes Beach Mayor Judy Titsworth and Bradenton Beach Mayor John Chappie.

“This is in our own backyard. The scalping (of the mangroves) is not going to stop,” Murphy said. “It’s going to continue until we do something about it.”

“We really need to have the mangrove replacement remedy available,” Schneier said.

Tyrna said local governments that have delegation authority have the ability to be stricter than the state regulations.

“The state is the floor, you have all the way up to the ceiling,” Tyrna said.

FDEP: Mangrove removal requires additional approval

FDEP: Mangrove removal requires additional approval

Written by Leslie Lake on . Posted in Environment, Outdoors.

ANNA MARIA – When contractors Mason Martin LLC removed 67 feet of mangroves at a canal-front home on Dec. 12, they did so without all of the required approval, according to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP).

According to an FDEP final inspection report dated Jan. 11 following a Dec. 22 site visit to the property at 111 Gull Drive, the mangrove removal required – but did not receive – the approval of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The site visit was the result of several complaints the agency received about mangrove removal on Dec. 13, according to the FDEP report.

On Sept. 19, FDEP issued a letter verifying that the construction of an approximately 116-foot seawall with a 2-foot-wide concrete cap and 815 square feet of backfill was exempt from department authorization. However, FDEP noted that no further work should be continued until authorization from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was obtained.

“The inspection revealed that construction had commenced and a portion of the mangroves on the property were removed within the exempt activity’s footprint,” according to the FDEP report. “Erosion control devices were installed upon request after the inspection. In addition, the Department notified the property owner that they should continue to coordinate with USACE and to not continue construction until a USACE authorization is obtained.”

As of Jan. 8, USACE had not issued authorization for the project.

Approximately 67 linear feet of mangroves were removed, with approximately 49 linear feet of mangrove fringe remaining. The pre-impact height of the mangroves was more than 24 feet, according to the FDEP report, and consisted of 40% red, 35% black and 25% white mangroves.

“The canal system is considered Water of the United States (WOTUS) and is within retained waters. Therefore additional authorization is required from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers,” the FDEP report states.

“No work should have commenced within jurisdictional ‘waters of the United States,’ which includes wetlands, without a permit,” attorney Justin Bloom, representing environmental group Suncoast Waterkeeper, wrote in an email to The Sun.

EXEMPTION CONCERNING

FDEP spokesperson Brian Humphreys emailed the following to The Sun on Jan. 11 with the report: “As you will see in this report, DEP’s investigation has determined that the mangrove alteration/removal activities at this property are in compliance and within the footprint of their seawall exemption. Under this exemption, limited mangrove alteration/removal is allowed within that footprint, per Rule 62-330.051(12) (a), Florida Administrative Code, and Chapter 403.9328 (5), Florida Statute.”

For environmentalist and self-described whistleblower Ronnie Leto, whose property is across the canal from 111 Gull Drive, the FDEP exemption raises concerns.

“This is the environmental protection agency,” Leto said. “What environment are they protecting?”

Leto noted that the property owner of 111 Gull Drive lives out of state and is readying the house for sale.

“This is all being done for profit and gain,” he said.

The listed property owner is Sharp Real Estate Development based in Hingham, Massachusetts.

Leto is concerned about what he said could be the domino effect of the project exemption.

“If other neighbors see this being done, they may want to do the same,” he said. “Responsible people always do the right thing. Would you rather live by a dead sea or a living sea?”

The mangroves have been nurturing the estuaries, which are teeming with fish and manatees, Leto said.

“The fight is ugly,” Leto said. “I want to see the outcome be for the betterment of the shoreline and our area.”

A third layer of approval, a seawall permit from the City of Anna Maria, also has not been issued. A stop work order was put in place by the city on Dec. 6 and as of Jan. 8 was still in effect.

“City staff visited the site on Dec. 13, and observed workers actively removing mangroves,” Anna Maria Mayor Dan Murphy wrote in a Dec. 18 email to The Sun. “During this visit, staff noted that the Stop Work Order had been removed from the property.”

City staff reposted the stop work order on the property.