St. Armands Key and Lido Key Assessment District Overhead Utility Undergrounding Program (CCNA)

The neighborhoods and business communities on St. Armands Key, Lido Shores, and Lido Key approached the City of Sarasota to request the creation of assessment areas to fund the undergrounding of overhead electric and communication lines. This effort is community-driven and requires broad support from property owners because undergrounding is a neighborhood-initiated, non-ad valorem assessment program. Four major stakeholder groups expressed written support for undergrounding, including the St. Armands Residents Association, Lido Shores Property Owners Association, Lido Key Residents Association, and the St. Armands Circle Association. Their surveys showed 85–97% support for moving forward with undergrounding improvements. To initiate the process, residents and businesses organized to obtain the required 60% "soft buy-in" across the three geographic areas: St. Armands residents, St. Armands businesses, and Lido residents including Lido Shores. This level of support was needed for the City Commission to authorize staff to begin the formal assessment district formation process. On October 20, 2025, City staff presented the community's request to the City Commission. The Commission directed staff to begin the formal process of establishing assessment areas for undergrounding on St. Armands Key, Lido Shores, and Lido Key. This authorization allows staff to begin feasibility work, coordinate with the City Attorney on statutory requirements, prepare the required resolutions, retain consultants, refine boundaries, and prepare preliminary assessments. No assessment areas were created and no assessments were levied by this action. To establish assessment areas, the City must follow City Code Chapter 2, Article IX, and Florida Statutes Chapters 163, 170, and 197.3632, which govern improvement areas and non-ad valorem assessment procedures. A required procedural step is adoption of a Resolution of Intent to use the Uniform Method of Collection, which enables assessments to be placed on annual property tax bills. The Assessment District Overhead Utility Undergrounding Program for St. Armands and Lido Keys will convert overhead electric and communication facilities to underground infrastructure across three assessment areas: District A (St. Armands Business Area), District B (St. Armands Residential Area), and District C (Lido Key Residential Area including Lido Shores). The work includes removing overhead FPL and communication lines, installing new underground conduit, feeders, transformers, and service laterals, installing dark-sky-compliant and sea-turtle-friendly street lighting, and restoring pavement, sidewalk, and landscape areas. The goals of the program are to improve public safety, increase reliability, strengthen hurricane and storm resilience, reduce outages, reduce visual clutter in the rights-of-way, and create a more attractive setting for residents, merchants, and visitors. If the assessment areas are approved by the City Commission and the required resolutions are adopted, the City will issue bonds to pay the upfront costs of engineering, design, construction, and program management. Property owners in each assessment area would then repay their share through non-ad valorem assessments. Assessments will only be finalized after detailed engineering, cost estimates, and public hearings. The optional services such as final design, bidding, and construction cannot proceed unless the City Commission approves the assessment areas, adopts the assessment resolutions, and authorizes financing. If the Commission does not approve these steps, the program will end after preliminary engineering and assessment methodology work.