LBK’s Sleepy Lagoon residents urge higher priority for drainage improvement

Longboat Key drainage projects are on the way, but the first won't begin construction until 2025.

Flooding isn’t a new issue on Longboat Key, but some on the island's North End say that houses flooding is a new problem that's only getting worse.

That’s what led the Sleepy Lagoon Homeowners Board and Drainage Committee to send a letter to the town, urging for a more consolidated effort for the drainage improvements the town has planned.

“Peoples’ houses are actually flooding, that’s a fairly new phenomenon,” John Connolly, president of the Sleepy Lagoon HOA, said. “The streets are flooding, but that’s not a new phenomenon whatsoever.”

The town has projects on the agenda to improve drainage in key areas like the Village, Sleepy Lagoon and Buttonwood. But those projects will be completed in phases, and the soonest construction date is early 2025.

While much of the timeline is dependent on grants, the Sleepy Lagoon representatives feel the projects could be more consolidated in order to push things forward quicker.

The projects, though, won’t be an end to all flooding.

“We’re really talking about the rain and the tides, not the hurricanes,” drainage committee member Blythe Jeffers said.