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Waterfront residents press Pinellas County to set firm end date and controls for McKay Creek staging site
Summary
Residents adjacent to the McKay Creek site told commissioners the site has been used for years as staging and debris storage and that continued activity — including a proposed injection well — would cause years of disruption; they asked the county to limit future use to declared emergencies or closure at project completion, impose monitoring and dust/noise controls, and formally notify residents when timelines change.
A group of Shipwash Yacht and Tennis Club neighbors told the Pinellas County commission they are experiencing an extended, multi-year disruption from a county-adjacent staging and debris site at McKay Creek and asked for explicit limits on future use.
"This is not an industrial corridor. This is a dense waterfront residential community," a resident who identified himself as Willie told commissioners. He said the site has been used intermittently since 2020 for debris and staging, that residents endured hurricane-related cleanup activity and that a current mobile-home project and a proposed injection well could extend active operations to roughly four continuous years. Willie described heavy truck traffic, dust, noise and visible stockpiling; he and other speakers asked for a clearly defined end state, formal completion dates, limits on ongoing staging and enforceable operating standards (noise limits, hours, dust-control, monitoring cameras) and better public notice when timelines change.
Staff and the County Administrator were on the dais during the comment, and Willie cited conflicting public information about the project's completion date — he said the county website listed June 2026 while County Administrator Barry Burton had indicated December 2026 in recent communications. "If timelines change, those changes should require public notification," the speaker said.
Commissioners acknowledged the complaint and said staff would look into notification and oversight steps; no formal policy change or vote was taken at the meeting. Residents said their aim is not to block necessary infrastructure but to require clear boundaries, predictable timelines and measurable mitigation to protect their neighborhood and property values if the site continues to be reused for county projects.
