Venice City Council hopes consultant can help solve beach area flooding woes
VENICE – The city of Venice will contract with a consultant to seek a solution to street flooding in the Golden Beach area of Venice because of backups from Flamingo Ditch.
Technically a natural waterbody that drains roughly 200 acres on the island of Venice, Flamingo Ditch is also known as Outfall 5 – one of 10 stormwater drainage outfalls into the Gulf of Mexico.
Venice Stormwater Engineer Steve Berens and City Engineer Kathleen Weeden provided the council with a historical perspective of the flooding issue.
Flooding of the area – which is a natural bowl – has been more prevalent since Hurricane Idalia and in recent months residents have implored the council to fix it.
The council, by consensus, directed staff to bring back a proposal to hire a consultant. During the discussion, a cost of roughly $200,000 was considered.
Flamingo Ditch is problematic in part because it's privately owned. The ditch's mouth is on land owned by either the Island Shores or the Villas of Venice condominiums.
Interior portions of the ditch are owned by homeowners in Golden Beach Unit 2, a 7.95-acre subdivision privately developed in 1954, when it was in unincorporated Sarasota County.
Previous city modifications – including a 2014 demucking project and a 2018 project to remove a wooden outfall structure – were designed to improve water quality and not necessarily more rapid drainage.
Currently, water accumulates in the ditch until it tops a sand berm and flows into the Gulf of Mexico, unless city workers use heavy equipment to open a channel.
That process can be hindered by the fact that the rainy season also coincides with turtle nesting season, which generally prohibits use of heavy equipment on the beach.
City to seek tenant to reuse Lord-Higel House
With renovation and restoration work on Lord-Higel House – the 1898 structure owned by the city since 2005 that was moved to 409 Granana Ave. – nearly complete, Assistant City Manager James Clinch and Historical Resources Manager Harry Klinkhamer said that, in addition to static displays that would celebrate history, there should be a reuse plan modeled after the Venice Historic Train Depot, which also now services as the county bus station and offers rental meeting space.
Lord-Higel could serve as anything from a small bookshop to coffee and tea shop, as well as serve as a venue for events on the lawn.
Klinkhamer noted the wraparound porch is perfect for a stage.
Clinch and Klinkhamer said the right partner could help support operation and maintenance of the structure.
Land purchased for solid waste and fleet maintenance relocation
In a move that will allow the city to relocate the solid waste and fleet maintenance divisions of public works out of the Seaboard District – so that location can be turned into a city park – the commission agreed to purchase 7.95 acres at 2191 Knights Trail Road for $2.34 million.
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Venice to seek consultant to help solve Golden Beach street flooding
