by SC Reporter Emilie Alfino
In 2011, the Sanibel City Council created an assessment district for canal dredging at the mouth of the canal into the Shell Harbor neighborhood. This fund was established at the request of the Shell Harbor homeowners for the purpose of tracking revenues and expenditures related to the canal dredging project. The assessment does not provide funding for dredging of the internal canal system, which last occurred in the early 1990s. However, the annual assessments include an amount that can be set aside for analysis of interior dredging needs.
Funding for dredging is received from property owners and the Sanibel Marina via an annual assessment and from the City’s General Fund as an interfund transfer. It has been determined that there will be an annual need for dredging of the entrance to the canal system.
The City sets the assessment rates per resolution annually prior to September 1 for the following fiscal year. The assessment amounts for fiscal year 2025 will include funding adequate to support the annual dredging project plus repay the General Fund for the $30,000 loan that was needed to dredge in fiscal year 2024.
The proposed assessment amount for each of three parties that are financially responsible for dredging for fiscal year 2025 is:
FY 2025 Total Property Owner Assessment………..60,750
($125 per parcel)
FY 2025 Total Marina Assessment..………………..90,000
FY 2025 Total City of Sanibel Transfer……………..74,250
Property owners and the marina will be assessed on their annual tax bill and collected by the Lee County Tax Collector and remitted to the City.