Residents on St Armands and Lido keys, seeking greater resilience from the increasing frequency of catastrophic storms, asked the city to consider burying utility lines and charging them a special assessment to pay for it.
The Sarasota City Commission took the necessary first step on Monday by unanimously approving the first of two phases of a not-to-exceed $8 million project — one that puts the city on the hook for $3.17 million should the project not proceed to implementation — to engage Utility Consultants of Florida to execute the first phase of the work.
In doing so, commissioners took the word of representatives of barrier island residents that more than 80% of them support the project, even if it means creating a special assessment district to collect potentially $10,000 per property over 20 years to pay for it. Until the first phase is completed, that exact figure is unknown, but St. Armands Residents Association Vice President Charles Haff told commissioners the 3,500 households on the barrier islands have an idea of what to expect…