CANAL DREDGING UPDATE – August 22, 2007

Pluck the Muck becomes…..

Tampa Canal Preservation & Restoration

(Tampa C.P.R.)

Progress:

Fantastic progress has been made towards getting our canals dredged since you received our last update May 10^th, 2007.   We have had meetings and correspondence with City Council, the Mayor’s Chief of Staff, City Administrator for Public Works and Utility Services, Stormwater and City Attorney’s office.  As a result of these activities we will have a complete plan ready for public meetings (early October) and City Council approval (mid October).

Name Change:

Canal Captains voted to create an organized group, with new name, board members, voting procedures and Chairmen.  We are now TAMPA CANAL PRESERVATION & RESTORATION.

The Plan Summary:

Our group of “affected” homeowners (those identified by the city as having less than 3 feet of canal depth at mean low tide) will partner with the City to dredge our canals and establish a maintenance plan.

Initial Dredge:

The City will use portions of a $1.3 million dollar Federal Grant and its $1.0 million dollar required match.  Property owners will pay the rest, which will be billed over a 20 year period, at the estimated rate of $600 per lot per annum.  This will be done through the creation of a “Special Assessment Area”.   If our plan is approved by City Council THIS October, the initial dredge should take 18-24 months… yes, we are that close.

August 28, 2007 Enhancement to Update  – More detail on the initial dredge:

The current plan is to “plow the road” by digging a 20 foot wide by five foot deep channel down each canal.  Residents will be able to negotiate dredging around their docks and seawalls with the contractor at their own expense, but will benefit by participating in the group pricing, permitting, and disposal of the material.  Our plan is to make provisions for routine surveying of the waterways after the main clean up, and maintenance dredging where the level of service is not met in the future.  The maintenance will be a separate and much smaller assessment.

Ongoing Maintenance:

Based upon your feedback and requirement to establish a long-term maintenance plan in addition to the initial dredging, Tampa C.P.R. has equested that a second Special Assessment Area be set up for long term maintenance. 

Each Special Assessment will have a separate line item on our annual tax bills.   Each must have its own "purpose statement" which we are in the process of writing.   We have been assured by the attorney the City’s retained that these dollars can never be used for anything other than the stated purpose of the assessment.

Our Obstacles and Opponents:

A few South Tampa residents are extremely vocal in their opposition to this plan, and have spent a great deal of time before City Council expressing their belief that the Federal Grant was not intended to be used for this purpose.   Here is an excerpt from the two page grant request:

“Description of Project:

This project would encompass the removal of sediment that has occurred in over 13 estuaries and natural and manmade canals on the west side of the Interbay Peninsular and on Davis Islands, which impacts the environmental health of Tampa Bay and the water quality for thousands of Tampa residents.”

The grant lists five bodies of water to be included in the project, but does not restrict use of funds to those bodies of water exclusively.  As stated above “over 13”. 

The Future is NOW!

You will soon be invited to a community meeting to be held at Plant High School in early October.    It is critical that you and your family attend this meeting and make your willingness to partner with the city known.    City Council must have clear citizen support and understand our urgency in order to fit our project into their jammed agenda DURING THIS FISCAL YEAR.    

Your To Dos:

• Make sure you have either signed the petition, mailed, emailed or phoned your “in favor” status to us (if you’re not sure if you’ve already done this, use the contact information below to verify)
• Contact City Council members and tell them you support this project.   Go to TampaGov.net, scroll to City Council on lower right side, all the contact information is there
• Speak to neighbors and make sure they know about this plan
• Learn more details and show your support at the October meeting
• Keep a positive attitude!  Many homeowners have waited for this for 25+ years, with your help we can make it happen.

Canal Dredging: $8,000

Increase in property value: 10%-20%

Enjoying Tampa's waterfront lifestyle with loved ones: PRICELESS!

Questions and remarks should be sent to:

Christine Acosta

Tampa Canal Preservation & Restoration

Co-Chair

804 S. Bayside Dr.

Tampa, FL 33609

(813) 286-2965

Christineacosta@tampabay.rr.com