Treasure Island leaders prepare to waive permit fees to give homeowners some relief

TREASURE ISLAND, Fla. — In many ways, the Sunset Beach neighborhood is Treasure Island’s ground zero.

Neighbors like Deb Widen are still recovering after Hurricanes Helene and Milton.

“The change with this last hurricane is incredible,” she said. “This was a nice, eclectic little beachy community, and I don’t think that’s going to be the case when everything is said and done here.”

Luckily, her home is elevated and suffered just minor damage.

Thursday she worked on one of her final repairs, some touch-up paint on her home’s exterior.

However, most of her other neighbors are still knee-deep in repairs, if they’re able to repair at all.

Adding insult to injury, permit fees. Homeowners sometimes have to fork over hundreds of dollars to the city before making their repairs.

“It’s like beating someone when they’re down,” Widen said.

However, a change is likely coming to give homeowners some much-needed financial relief.

According to city spokesman Jason Beisel, the Treasure Island City Commission plans to hold a special meeting Friday at 9 a.m.

A resolution they will consider, if passed, would waive storm-related permit fees through May and refund homeowners who have already paid storm-related fees since Hurricane Helene.

Under the proposal, the fees for the following types of permits would be waived:

• Interior demolition of flood-damaged drywall, flooring, baseboards, and cabinets;
• Fence installation;
• Tree removal;
• Roof repair/roof replacement;
• Electrical for meter bases/power surges on appliances; and
• All permits and plan examination fees associated with repair or demolition of storm damage caused by Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton to residential or commercial buildings, but not including any accessory structures.

“Hopefully, the more money they have in their pocket, the more they can contribute to building their home back,” Beisel said.
He also said permits are now being approved faster after several changes by the city staff. A backlog of 320 was cut to just 65 last week.

“We hope this new process works. It’s a new process that we started, because the old process wasn’t working to the best of our city’s ability. It wasn’t as efficient as we wanted and as quick as we wanted it,” Beisel said.

Back at Sunset Beach, Widen is also hoping for faster permits and waived permit fees. Her neighborhood — the city’s ground zero — needs all the help it can get.