PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — The City of Treasure Island is working to speed up the permitting process for homes damaged by last year's storms.
The City is rolling out a new program that could issue permits within one day.
"There is frustration…and I think for me, I'm just looking at what I need to do next," said Dave Grant.
Grant owns three properties on Treasure Island—his own home and two rentals.
Hurricane Helene damaged all three.
"I had everything ripped out of here within three or four days of the storm," said Grant.
His renters had to move out and Grant has been living on the second floor of his home and in his RV for months.
"There's a lot of people who can't come back to their homes and they are devastated," said Grant.
Grant said the process of getting permits to repair the homes has been a headache.
"I mean it's just overwhelming the amount of paperwork," he said.
"Everybody here on the barrier islands are going through the same thing so, I mean, the city is doing the best they can. They've never been through this before either," said Wendy Guinta.
Giunta has lived in her home for 35 years and said it's taking a while for Treasure Island to recover.
"It's just a rabbit hole that everybody has to go down and we have to pop up out of it, and you know, it's coming…it's coming along," she said.
Now, the city is working to speed up the permitting process.
'We will have two teams, and each team will consist of a flood plain manager, an appraiser, a general contractor and other areas that the permit process goes through…and the hope is to have people come in the door, apply for their permit, and walk out the door with that permit if all goes well," said Jason Beisel who works with the City of Treasure Island.
The Community Development Department is catching up on roughly 320 backlogged permits that are under review this week and then will begin the new permitting program next week.
"I'm glad they are taking a different approach and hopefully they start getting these permits out," said Grant.
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