Commissioners used Tuesday’s meeting to revisit community-driven resiliency ideas and infrastructure options in the wake of recent storms.

Resident engagement and resiliency group: Commissioner Reznicki proposed a citywide, time-limited resident resiliency group to harness neighborhood-level knowledge on flooding, seawalls and code issues. Several commissioners suggested starting with library-hosted resilience forums or grassroots pilots rather than immediately creating a formal advisory board. City staff offered to map current outreach efforts (watershed master plan, CRA study, fee studies and revenue-team work) and return with a coordinated engagement strategy.

Sewer lateral replacement incentives: Commissioner Robinson raised inflow-and-infiltration concerns and noted the City of St. Petersburg implemented a lateral-rehabilitation rebate program; he proposed requiring lateral replacement for new builds and waiving permit fees as an incentive, and suggested pursuing rebates when funding allows. Commissioners generally supported investigating feasibility and integrating the concept into long-term resiliency planning.

Short-term rentals and enforcement: Commissioners discussed short-term rental (STR) enforcement and whether a business-license or rental registration would improve tracking. Staff said code enforcement has strengthened in recent years and that fee-study consultants have been asked to evaluate registration and fee options; volunteers or seasonal enforcement efforts have been used previously to identify listings.

What’s next: Staff will map current projects and outreach, assess feasibility and legal considerations for lateral-rebate programs and STR registration and return with options and resource implications for commissioner review.