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Galveston tax plan to expand General Land Office beach renewal
Galveston tax plan to expand General Land Office beach renewal
A plan to renourish three miles of eroding beaches on Galveston Island could be expanded to cover the island's entire Gulf shore of about 30 miles if voters approve the extension of a sales tax next year, says the Galveston city manager.
City Manager Steve LeBlanc wants to expand a $13.5 million project by the Texas General Land Office that would add about 200 feet of sand to the rapidly receding beach north of the sea wall.
The sand would be dredged from a submerged sand shoal at the east end of the island between the south jetty and Inner Bar Channel.
LeBlanc said in an interview Wednesday that the city could pay for expanding the project, which targets three miles of beach, to the entire length of the island by reallocating a special sales tax.
He said the City Council was enthusiastic about using the tax to renourish the island's entire Gulf coast when he presented the idea last week. LeBlanc said he would recommend that the council increase the amount of the tax allotted for beach renourishment from 1/8 -cent to 1/2 -cent "or whatever it takes."
The 1/2 -cent sales tax now allocates 1/8 -cent for beaches and the remainder for infrastructure and sewerage.
Voters last month rejected extending the special sales tax when it expires in 2009, but LeBlanc believes voters will approve the extension next November if the city makes clear exactly how the money will be used.
Renourishing the beaches would rejuvenate the island's economy, he said. "It's hard to put a dollar value, but I think it would be a huge economic impact," LeBlanc said.
The sales tax was approved by the voters in 1995 to pay for renourishing 50 blocks of beach on the more populous eastern end of the island near hotels and other businesses.
The tax is scheduled to expire in 2009 when the bonds used to pay for the beach renourishment are repaid.
The effort to extend the sales tax, known as the 4B tax, ran into opposition from the business community when the City Council retooled it to include 1/4 -cent for economic incentives that would be used to lure businesses to the island.
Steve Greenberg, board member of Galveston Friends of Business and leader of the effort to defeat the 4B tax ballot measure in November, said he opposed extending the sales tax because it gave the city too broad discretion in doling out economic incentives.
Greenberg agrees that the tax would have broader support next November if it specifies how it will be used.
The 4B tax extension was already on the ballot when the state Land Office announced its beach renourishment plan in October.
"I didn't have any idea what was on the drawing board when we put that on the ballot," LeBlanc said about the state project.
When he learned about the Land Office proposal, LeBlanc speculated publicly that renewal of the 4B tax could fund a $9 million bond issue to renourish beaches from 61st Street to the end of the seawall, an area where the sand eroded away decades ago.
Voters defeated the tax extension and the $9 million bond issue was never proposed to the City Council.
LeBlanc said the ballot measure to extend the 4B tax would be specific when it goes before voters again next year, although he couldn't say whether it would include a portion for economic incentives.
He said he doesn't know the cost of renewing beaches along the entire Galveston coast, but said every 1/8 -cent of sales tax would finance about $12 million in bonds over 20 years.
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Comment By Dallas Morning News
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Spurned by voters on a $9 million bond proposal, Galveston city officials are scrambling to find money for its share of a beach reconstruction project the state already has said it will support.
Under a proposal that would pay for Galveston's share of a beach reconstruction project, any beaches widened during the work will be eligible for a 50-year federal maintenance program.
Two months ago, Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson committed to a $13.5 million plan to widen a portion of the Gulf Coast island's beaches by 200 feet.
Mr. Patterson asked the city to contribute funds to expand the project eastward to 61st Street. He encouraged Galveston voters to approve a sales-tax extension proposition in November that would have helped pay for the sand.
But voters rejected the initiative, and local leaders thought they'd missed what they described as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Council member Dianna Puccetti says Mr. Patterson is going to give the city another chance to raise the funds and even has sweetened the pot – any beaches widened during the project will be eligible for a 50-year federal maintenance program.
"This is not a nourishment project like we've ever seen," Ms. Puccetti recently told fellow council members. "It's the most massive project we've ever seen on the island. This is an opportunity that only comes along once."
The most expensive part of the project is setting up the operation to dredge sand from the ocean floor and deposit it on the beach.
Texas has promised $5 million for the first part of the project and is counting on an additional $6 million in state Coastal Impact Assistance 2008 program funds.
Eddie Fisher, director of coastal protection for the Texas General Land Office, said his staff planned to meet with project engineers in January and would have a better idea of the final cost then.
The council budgeted only $50,000 for beach projects during the 2007-08 fiscal year.
City Manager Steve LeBlanc said the city could ask voters next year to dedicate half the revenue from an economic development sales tax to the effort.
The November election would coincide with the dredging and would happen around the time the state would need a commitment from the city for its portion of the work.
Comment By Mike Stuart
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Galveston's beach restoration bogs down
By HARVEY RICE Houston Chronicle
A project scheduled for this fall to restore the remaining slivers of Galveston Island's ravaged beaches to 200-foot expanses of sand will be delayed, a Galveston councilwoman said Saturday.
The completion date is being pushed back because the Texas General Land Office decided to use hopper dredges rather than pipelines to dump millions of cubic yards of sand along the island's Gulf Coast, Councilwoman Dianna Puccetti said.
Using hopper dredges — ships that suck sand into holds that open at the bottom to deposit their load — will require additional time to obtain a permit from the Army Corps of Engineers, Puccetti said.
The council wasn't told how long the delay would be, but that the Land Office hoped to get the project under way before turtle nesting season begins in March or April 2009, she said.
Jerry Mohn, chairman of the Galveston Park Board Beach Maintenance Advisory Committee, said he was told that the delay could be as long as six months.
City officials want to expand a $13.5 million Land Office project to renourish three miles of beach west of the seawall to include the entire Gulf Coast of the island. Officials envision the complete rebuilding of the beaches rather than a veneer of sand, Puccetti said.
Puccetti and Mohn said the delay would allow more time to find money for the expanded project.
Officials are still trying to determine how much the expanded project would cost.
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