U.S. 41 dredging can finally proceed, court rules

SARASOTA — Work can finally begin on a $200,000 Sarasota city and county dredging project designed to alleviate flooding on U.S. 41 after an appeals court ruling ended years of litigation.

The project will dredge, stabilize and remove mangroves from the ditch between the Ritz-Carlton and Quay Sarasota properties just west of U.S. 41 that drains stormwater from more than 40 acres downtown.

The plan has been trapped in a series of complicated legal and administrative challenges for more almost five years after a dispute arose between the two local governments and Erika and Achim Ginsberg-Klemmt, who contended their SRQUS LLC owned part of the ditch.

A circuit court ruling found the couple did not own the ditch, and even if they did, it has been used publicly since 1960. The couple appealed that decision, but the Second District Court of Appeal upheld it without issuing an opinion, Sarasota County Attorney Steven DeMarsh wrote in a memo last week.