ST. PETE BEACH, Fla. — St. Pete Beach city commissioners are discussing a plan to redevelop the Tradewinds Island Resort.
Some residents like Lisa Reich say they're all for redevelopment but are concerned it would impact the coastal community on land and sea.
“I wish I wasn't standing here. I wish that they had done all of the things that they have been informed of over the years 'cause we wouldn't have to be here,” Reich said.
Reich is the founder of Coastal Wildlife Advocacy Group.
“I have over 13 years of patrolling the beaches in Pinellas County doing sea turtle conservation work. I've been on multiple marine permits,” Reich said.
Some of those projects are here on St. Pete beach. Reich recently filed a complaint with the city against Tradewinds and a nearby restaurant regarding its lighting.
“Which causes disorientation of not only hatchlings but females, and the furniture poses obstacles for both nesting females and our hatchlings,” Reich said.
Tradewinds Island Resort said it's aware of concerns in the community and is addressing them by expanding a program with the nonprofit called Sea Turtle Trackers.
In a statement to 10 Tampa Bay, Tradewinds said its lighting is turtle-compliant and explained other features of its program:
- A mock turtle nest has been installed on the beach behind the hotel as part of the hotel’s education efforts. The mock nest includes signage that explains the concept to hotel visitors and beachgoers.
- TradeWinds will be working with Sea Turtle Trackers to hold a weekly “Sea Turtle Talk” for hotel guests starting this spring, with fun activities designed to engage visitors of all ages.
- A donation box for Sea Turtle Trackers is in a prominent spot in the TradeWinds lobby, and signage around the resort includes QR codes to help hotel visitors make donations.
- TradeWinds is planning to replace its wooden lounge chairs on the beach with lightweight, stackable chairs so they can be stacked each night. The new plan ties to a site plan created by Sea Turtle Trackers to make the beach property as turtle-friendly as possible. This multi-million investment will allow the TradeWinds team to get the chairs out of the pathway of any nesting turtles nightly during turtle hatching season.
- TradeWinds is expanding its education efforts, both internally with its operations departments and externally to visitors. For hotel guests, there is information on the windows in rooms explaining the need to close blinds at night to reduce lighting on the beach during turtle hatching season.
- The facility will continue to hold beach cleanup events with partners, promoting awareness for a clean and responsible beachfront area.
- As part of the conditional use permit approval (if granted), Tradewinds is committed to investing millions of dollars to install a tint on windows to reduce glare on the beach at night, which may confuse nesting sea turtles.
Reich said the city has yet to respond to her complaint as of Tuesday.
“From the city ordinance perspective, there's no dates. So technically if we go by the city ordinance, they should be compliant all year round,” Reich said.
The city of St. Pete Beach sent 10 Tampa Bay this statement:
The Clearwater Marine Aquarium conducts a yearly lighting survey, that is provided to Code Enforcement (CE). The survey is used by CE to notify property and business owners of any lighting infractions. Since turtle season starts May 1st, the Sea Turtle Trackers, who I have worked closely with for years, and I will be scheduling inspections within the next week, at the end of April or early May, which is the way it has been successfully done for 8 years.
Reich said she met with the mayor and city staff about protecting coastal wildlife before and hopes changes should be coming soon.
“They have also committed to working on the marine turtle protection ordinance, so I'm going to keep going,” Reich said.
10 Tampa Bay is still waiting to hear back from the city about how many violations they see a year and what enforcement looks like.