Residents press for dredging as commissioners approve disaster recovery plan and new SHIP administration; vote fails on downtown parcel purchase

Public commenters from neighborhoods that flooded repeatedly this year pressed Sarasota County commissioners on April 29 to accelerate dredging and maintenance of Phillippi Creek, Hudson Bayou and other local waterways as hurricane season approaches. Dozens of speakers described homes and yards inundated by recent storms and urged immediate action and funding.

The board approved a final action plan to spend the county's federal Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) allocation for the 2024 storms and directed staff to submit it to U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Steve Hyatt, division manager in the Office of Financial Management, told the board the county must use the CDBG-DR funds within six years and meet HUD's rules that projects address unmet needs and normally benefit low- and moderate-income households. "Sarasota County received a direct allocation of $201,500,000 in May 2023 and established the Resilient SRQ program," Hyatt said, describing the county's earlier Ian allocation and the new 2024 allocation staff are packaging for HUD review.

The board also voted unanimously to begin administering the State Housing Initiatives Partnership (SHIP) program for the unincorporated county on its own, rather than continuing the long-standing arrangement in which the City of Sarasota administered the county's SHIP allocation. The change requires adopting a local housing assistance plan and setting up the advisory process required by the Sadowski Act and the Florida Housing Finance…