ROGER LALONDE / Staff

A view of Hideaway Beach shows the present T-Groins and the section north of them where T-Groins are needed.

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No one has questioned the urgency of Hideaway Beach’s need for protection from natural beach erosion. The question seems to be: who should pay for it?

The answer depends on who you ask.

There are about 620 households in the Hideaway Beach development. Many believe that the beach adjacent to their homes should be renourished using a combination of the taxes the Hideaway District levies on their homeowners as well as money generated for tourism by Collier County’s tax on hotels and short-term rentals.

While these are the residents’ primary sources of money so far, they also said they were unable to tax themselves at a high enough rate to pay for the most recent round of beach renourishment in a timely manner.

A written request by Richard Freeman, chairman of the Hideaway Beach Tax District Board, asked City Council to loan the district $1.6 million. The request received approval through general consensus during Monday’s City Council meeting.

Bill Harrison, the city’s finance director, said he serves as the liaison with the Hideaway tax district, the only dependent taxing district on Marco Island.

“It would take time that we don’t have and extra dollars we don’t need to spend to bring the issue back to a Hideaway referendum,” he added.

The Hideaway Tax District was specifically set up four years ago to tax residents in order to pay for beach issues, including $1.6 million they paid toward a similar project in 2005 to protect the beach. The referendum allowed the tax district to be in existence for 10 years and to tax residents up to the rate of 2.6 mils (or $2.60 per $1,000 of taxable property value) in addition to the property tax levy they pay to the City of Marco Island and Collier County.

“Not one nickel of general fund revenue is going to Hideaway Beach,” Harrison said.

Council will make a final decision in September and their property taxes should be collected this fall.

The alternative would be a bank loan to Hideaway for the project.

“You don’t bond out $1.6 million. The cost will eat you alive on that,” Harrison said.

Councilor Frank Recker questioned the idea. “Is there a precedence to the city lending money to a private community? On what collateral?” he asked Harrison.

“We’re giving them an advance on the money we’ll be collecting from them in the future,” Harrison replied.

The city will charge 4 percent interest and earn $40,000 on the loan in the first year, he added.

“It’s like your kid wants to borrow money to buy a car. It’s like saving their allowance and then giving them permission to borrow their own money back,” explained Councilor Ted Forcht.

Hideaway homeowners are also in the process of paying $400,000 to protect a narrow road that leads into the gated community. The road is in as much danger of disappearing as the nearby beach.

The $400,000 comes from Hideaways Beach’s special taxing district.

The rock wall will provide immediate protection to the roadway which was constructed by the developer. The emergency improvement will also protect the city’s investment in the utilities that are under that roadway, Harrison said.

While Harrison said this is the first time the city has loaned money to Hideaway, it is not the first time Hideaway homeowners have requested help from Collier County.

In 2005, Hideaway Beach received $1.9 million in tourist development tax money to fight erosion with 10 t-groins on the north and south ends of the island.

“The theory was that Coconut Island would protect the middle section ... The barrier island disappeared as barrier islands will do,” Harrison said.

Though the beach doesn’t meet the county’s public access guidelines, county commissioners approved spending the money because they determined it was “in the public interest.”

There is no public parking, and if you don’t live on Hideaway you can get there by boat, or by walking over from Tigertail Beach.

Hideaway’s taxing district paid for a study conducted by Trullinger Associates over Memorial Day weekend and the study revealed that there were 336 non-Hideaway residents who visited the beach in those three days. The study supports the idea that Hideaway is a public beach, Freeman said.

Similar to the 2005 decision, county commissioners voted 3-2 on June 24 to spend $1.6 million on six more beach erosion controls, or t-groins to protect the beach due to its public interest. The money would come from bed taxes, a 4 percent charge on all short-term stays in Collier County.

Commissioners Fred Coyle and Tom Henning voted against spending any more tourist taxes to protect Hideaway. Henning also voted against the initial request four years ago for $2.9 million in tourist development grants.

In the initial project design to protect Hideaway, tourist taxes would pay for the t-groins and Hideaway residents would pay for the sand. It was about an even split for the near $6 million project.

This time the district is expecting to pay for more than half of the project, which is estimated to cost $3.5 million for six more t-groins and sand to protect the middle section of the beach.

The design of the initial project “worked beautifully,” Freeman said. He added that if the same design is used in the center the Hideaway peninsula should finally be protected from erosion.

Commission approval in June came after an advisory board, the Tourist Development Council, deadlocked 4-4 on whether to support spending the tax money on the project. Opinions were split on whether it was a continuation of a project not completed several years ago and therefore should be funded or whether the beach is not publicly accessible and therefore would be excluded from receiving TDC funds.

Due to a recommendation by Commissioner Jim Coletta, a condition of the June 24 decision was that Hideaway homeowners add a public restroom for visitors.

The Hideaway Beach Taxing District is in the process of planning for the construction and location of the required bathroom, according to officials of the taxing district.

“The issue of who pays for it remains unresolved at the present time,” Freeman said.

Freeman said the debate over tourist funds seems to come after Hideaway’s history with the county has been forgotten.

He said the developer of Hideaway gave land, beach access and the Caxambas Boat Landing to the county in exchange for a gate on the roadway to limit auto access to the “public” beach. The Hideaway homeowners also pay for all grooming of the beach, Freeman said.

While Collier County Real Property Management confirmed records of lands deeded to the county in 1983 by Deltona Corp., the 27 year old microfiche records were not immediately available to determine what the land was swapped for.

Hideaway Beach now has the majority of its funding in place, but the project will not be completed before the end of this year’s rain and storm season.

Permits still must be approved for the renourishment project. The earliest the work could begin is Nov. 1, the end of turtle nesting season, said Katie Maline, Hideaway Tax District’s construction project manager.

“We are really concerned about getting through this hurricane season,” Harrison said.