ST. PETE BEACH — City commissioners voted May 26 to end the city’s six-year utility undergrounding project rather than spend at least $4 million more to finish it.
The decision followed warnings from staff that some electric poles and wires would stay above ground regardless, depending on whether private property owners granted the necessary easements, and that saltwater intrusion could still knock out buried lines during storms.
Commissioners also faced a deadline. The interlocal agreement funding the work through Pinellas County expires Sept. 30, and staff said the county has given no indication it will grant the extension the city requested in April.
By halting the project, the city will reallocate about $1.4 million from its Capital Improvement Plan to other needs and forfeit roughly $3.9 million in county grant money that was available as reimbursement.
Begun in 2020, the project aimed to bury power lines, streetlights and communication equipment along Gulf Boulevard from 35th Avenue to 75th Avenue as a beautification effort for the barrier island. Construction is finished on the first phase, but later phases stalled over state permitting and easements. Completing the next segment alone — Phase 2A, from 45th Avenue to 55th Avenue — would cost an estimated $8.1 million, Public Services Director Camden Mills told commissioners. Even with the remaining grant, the city would have to cover more than $4 million itself.
Mills said the city has secured 15 of the easements needed for that segment and 14 for the segment to the south, with 25 still outstanding. Where owners refuse, he said, the poles would remain in place.
Burying the lines also carried limited storm benefit, Mills told commissioners. “You do have some resiliency in undergrounding, but you’re more susceptible to flood damage than you were if you were overhead,” he said. “You’re removing the wind danger and you could potentially have more flood.”
“I hate to see this go, but I hate to spend this money that we don’t really have,” Commissioner Lisa Robinson said, noting the city needs the funds in higher-priority areas.
Commissioner Al Causey cited Duke Energy’s storm protection plan, filed with the Florida Public Service Commission, which says sandy soils and flooding make undergrounding less effective and more costly on barrier islands.
Mayor Scott Tate, who backed reallocating the money, asked staff to check whether the county would allow the grant funds to be used instead to raise Duke Energy’s electrical pedestals.