LARGO, FLORIDA — Residents living near a canal in Largo are urging city leaders to take action on what they believe is a growing flood risk, saying memories of Hurricane Milton's devastating impacts are still fresh.
Homeowners in the Lincolnshire Estates neighborhood and New Haven Condominiums say they are concerned that vegetation buildup in the canal could worsen flooding during future storms. Many are calling on the city to dredge the waterway.
"The people that live here, they look out every night to see if water's going to come out into their properties and into their homes again," said Largo resident Jay Sewell.
For residents like Sewell and Jane Pastva, the concern is deeply personal.
Pastva said she was forced to evacuate during Hurricane Milton. When they returned, they found their home flooded.
"We had to evacuate. When we got back, our home had taken in three and a half feet of water," Pastva said. "We inevitably lost the home and every belonging that we had."
Now, she and her neighbors closely monitor water levels in the canal every day.
Residents say the city had been managing vegetation in the waterway until recently. Sewell said homeowners were surprised to learn the canal is considered private property.
"[The City] has maintained it for the last 36 years. We weren't aware that we owned it until Thursday night," Sewell said.
The City of Largo confirmed it recently stopped maintenance activities after determining the canal falls outside city jurisdiction.
"We went back and looked and our legal team determined that we were actually doing that outside of our jurisdiction, so we should have never started doing that," said Noah Taylor, the city's floodplain manager. "Once we found out that we were actually on private property, our legal instructed us that we must stop all of our functions there, because there's a liability issue."
Taylor said the city cannot dredge the canal because it does not own the property.
"We would have to get some kind of easement or something," Taylor said. "That would be something that the city administration or the commissioners would have to determine that they would want to do because that would cost us money every single year to maintain."
Instead, Taylor said residents should consider elevating their homes to reduce potential flood damage.
The city is also working on the Starkey Watershed Master Plan, planned for 2031. According to Taylor, Largo is developing additional watershed management strategies, including purchasing property to create a watershed park that could hold excess stormwater and help reduce flooding impacts downstream.
But for many residents, they want solutions before 2031.
"We're sick to our stomachs," Sewell said. "We can't sell our properties. People are moving out so fast because they're in fear of flooding again."
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