After a weeks-long pause, the City of Treasure Island will continue distributing substantial damage determination letters, but only if they are requested in person at city hall.
Commissioners made the switch in a Tuesday night vote.
The city is still in the process of determining if homes across the island are substantially damaged after widespread flooding during Hurricane Helene.
The city must follow FEMA rules and ensure homes are not substantially damaged before issuing permits to rebuild them. If a home’s monetary damage is determined to be more than 50% of its pre-damage value, it must be demolished, relocated, or elevated.
To make this determination, the city used a subcontractor to assess homes and businesses. Data collected in that assessment was inserted into a FEMA calculator to determine a structure’s extent of the damage. Then, letters were being mailed to the property owners to inform them of the damage determinations.
However, some homeowners, like Chris Clark, argued the process was inaccurate and unfair since most assessments were done hastily without entering impacted homes.