City reports steady permitting and limited Elevate Florida gains; 800 properties to receive detailed FEMA‑compliance letters

St. Pete Beach staff on Aug. 19 gave a status update on hurricane recovery and preparedness, detailing permit throughput, historic‑designation activity, Elevate Florida outcomes and next steps on FEMA compliance.

“Beginning with the hurricane recovery, we’re going to talk briefly about historic designations, permit processing, demos, elevations, FEMA compliance,” Community Development Director Laura Canary told the commission, then laid out the current counts and timelines. Laura Canary and Public Services Director Camden Mills presented the report.

Key figures staff presented (staff‑reported totals at Aug. 3 unless otherwise noted): - Historic designations: 45 local historic designations approved; 12 pending; 3 withdrawn. - Certificates of appropriateness (for demolition/review of contributing historic structures): 27 applications; 23 approved; 4 pending. - Permit intake: 5,118 applications submitted to date; staff said they are issuing on average about 69 permits per day and performing about 83 inspections daily; 867 permits have been closed to date. - Demolition permits: 138 demo permit applications received; 82 issued; 19 closed. Average time to issue a demolition permit: about 30 days when documentation is complete. - Elevation permits: 30 applications received; 13 issued. The average issuance time on those is about 32 days.

Elevate Florida results and FEMA…