At two meetings this week, commissioners tackle unprecedented development and catastrophic floods.
By Ramon Lopez
Original Air Date: March 14, 2025
Host: Sarasota County will be dredging the Phillippi Creek. On Wednesday, a county commission workshop laid out possible responses to the catastrophic flooding of the last storm season. The day before, the county commissioners gave us two other notable moments. Ramon Lopez reports.
Flood victim 1: Please help us. We’re suffering, we’re scared, and we need your help, and we need it quickly.
Flood victim 2: We had one to two feet of water in our house. Seven months later, we’re still mostly living out of our garage.
Flood victim 3: We ended up with eight inches of water in the entire house. We had to have a boat come and rescue us and get us out of there because we have two dogs. We’re starting to clean out and empty out the house, and three days later, my wife has a stroke and goes to the hospital.
Phillippi Creek side channel. Photo by C. Todd Sherman via Suncoast Searchlight.
Ramon Lopez: To those individuals with houses on Phillippi Creek, “When it rains it pours” is more than just an everyday expression. And the 18-inch deluge dumped on Sarasota County by Hurricane Debby last August dominated twin Sarasota County Commission meetings on Tuesday and the next day.
On Wednesday, the county commissioners held the second of a series of stormwater workshops to discuss last year’s severe flooding problem and how they and staffers are starting to stream forward with finding a fix to the county-wide issue. But before the county commissioners got into overall stormwater solutions, they agreed with the public that the biggest priority will be dredging Phillippi Creek to prevent future flooding.
The county commission voted unanimously for staff to explore possibilities on how to accomplish the dredging sooner than later. This, because sediment brought in from Debby has made homes along the creek more susceptible to future catastrophic flooding. Sarasota County looks to apply $75 million of $210 million in federal hurricane recovery funding towards dredging major waterways. And it plans to partner with the West Coast Inland Navigation District (WCIND), which is responsible for maintaining water channels along the Gulf.
County officials said WCIND already plans to dredge Phillippi Creek up to the Tamiami Trail. But concerned citizens urge the county commission to extend the dredging much, much further. At issue is whether federal cash can be used to conduct a complete dredging of the seven-mile-long creek. Public Works Director Spencer Anderson says he is optimistic that some dredging can be started this summer. Emergency dredging of high levels of sediment would get priority.
Meanwhile, the first stormwater workshop was held in late January. It outlined the results of an independent study on what caused the unprecedented flooding from Debby. The county adheres to what is often referred to as a 100-year storm threshold—of 10 inches of rain in a 24-hour period—to determine acceptable flooding. We got 18.
Map highlighting the Phillippi Creek watershed via Suncoast Searchlight.
Potential regulatory and operational changes were suggested. Key options proposed were: identify significant floodplain areas and protect them from development; clean debris from stormwater streams on a regular basis; and inspect and better maintain those waterways.
At the latest workshop, Wednesday, 16 specific stormwater management regulatory changes were presented by county staff. The five commissioners liked four, rejected seven, and took a wait-and-see position on the rest.
Staff will now do a deep dive into the potential changes, bring back proposals for further discussion at more public stormwater workshops and ultimately final action by the commissioners.
The county is already implementing some operational changes such as better maintenance of stormwater sites, says Anderson.
Tuesday’s county commission hearing produced a couple of interesting twists and turns.
Tom Knight. Photo by Ramon Lopez.
Newly-elected commissioner and retired lawman Tom Knight asked his fellow panelists to direct staff to hire an independent consultant to review the county’s comprehensive plan. He feels the county is struggling with unprecedented growth and needs to step back and rethink matters to provide a better framework for future decisions.
Knight says he’s frustrated because the plan is being ignored on a regular basis. He says it’s crucial that stability and credibility be brought back to the comp plan. We hear from Tom Knight:
Tom Knight: Revisiting the guiding principles and the intent of the comprehensive plan that was passed in 2016; identifying significant demographic and migration shifts; rare but consequential events from recessions, pandemics and natural disasters. It would offer us an opportunity for an independent organization to gather data and insight regarding the rapid population and housing growth in our county, explaining major changes that have been made to the comprehensive plan and the consequences of it, identifying cases in which we fail to follow our guidelines.
Ron Cutsinger.
RL: But Knight got some pushback from Commissioners Cutsinger and Chairman Joe Neunder, and no resolution was made to hire a consultant.
Ron Cutsinger: My personal preference would be for this to be a strategic planning item that, at the retreat, we bring forward for next year.
Joe Neunder.
Joe Neunder: We have it on the board now. Maybe pause it for a couple weeks. It would give me an opportunity to caucus in the community with people, stakeholders, et cetera—“what are the issues that you think we need to come back and talk about?”—and to really drill down the narrative for our next meeting when, if it is the will of this board, to ask a consultant.
RL: Tuesday’s meeting also included a surprise vote of confidence for Jonathan Lewis, the county’s administrator. The motion came from Cutsinger. It was unanimous and heaped praise on Lewis. Cutsinger explains:
RC: To motion to express our confidence in our county administrator is prompted by some recent articles and social media, some of which contain inaccuracies, which the author recognized. I just don’t want there to be any question or lack of clarity as to whether this board supports our county administrator. He’s a man of complete integrity and honor.
RL: The vote of confidence follows publication of an article in the Florida Trident. It raised a possible conflict of interest by Lewis regarding construction work at his home.
This is Ramon Lopez for WSLR News.
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