Pinellas County and Army Corps of Engineers sign for beach nourishment

Pinellas County and Army Corps of Engineers sign for beach nourishment

Agreement provides new pathways to access federal funding

Today, Pinellas County officials and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers signed an historic amendment to our Project Cooperation Agreement that provides new avenues for Pinellas County to access federal beach nourishment funding.

The signing event featured Assistant Secretary of the Army (Civil Works) Adam Telle; U.S. Representative for Congressional District 13 Anna Paulina Luna; U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Deputy Commanding General for Civil and Emergency Operations Maj. Gen. Jason Kelly; Pinellas County Board Chair Dave Eggers; County Commissioners Kathleen Peters, Brian Scott and Chris Latvala; and a host of local elected officials.

The new amendment means that:

Provisions for public access and use are no longer required in beach nourishment easements, and some federal cost sharing requirements can be met through local customary use ordinances.

Beach nourishment easements no longer need to be permanent.

There is additional flexibility in easement language, and we now have more ways to work with property owners and "get to yes" on beach nourishment easements.