Certainly agree protecting the turtles but how do building owners address the safety from theft or fall/trip (from no or dim lighting for owners/guests)...

There are many clever ways of lighting that are turtle and people friendly. Lauderdale-by-the Sea uses them, for one example. They have shields so they don't shine too brightly on the beach and are of a blue color.

Exactly, RealDonn. It is successfully done in many other beach front communities!

Staff has transmitted "turtle lighting" educational material to the condo association to distribute to the individual units

Distributing educational material is nice and a good first step, but are there any teeth in the city ordinances about lighting?

Distributing educational material goes without saying and should be done routinely (primarily at the start of sea turtle nesting season) and is important in upholding the ordinance but this is NOT enforcement of the ordinance. There is clear violations/violators TI and nothing is being done to enforce the ordinance year after year, dead hatchling after dead hatchling!

Safety as far as tripping and falling because of the lack of bright lights doesn't seem to be a problem at the Pavilion where large numbers of people are present at events there after dark. The Paviolion uses turtle-friendly lighting. Aren't there specific ordinances covering required wavelengths, etc.? If not, there should be. But if there are, what is the problem, why aren't the violators cited? Why?

For those folks indicating the issue is about "safety", please read the ordinance.The ordinance does not mean that there should not be any lighting. Absolutely safety is a concern and there needs to be lighting! The purpose of the lighting ordinance is not to go without lights but to have lighting (fixtures, bulbs, location) that is turtle friendly. There are certain types of bulbs and shielding that is required. The city has, year after year, failed at "enforcing" this ordinance. There are properties that are blatantly not in compliance yet there has not been one violation issued during this turtle nesting season. Not one. I have, year after year, had to call the fire department in the middle of the night to get disoriented hatchlings out of storm drains. I have also had to repeatedly scrape dead hatchlings off of Gulf Blvd due to the hatchlings getting disoriented and going the wrong way! The number one reason is improper lighting. What a terrible waste of the City's resources. I have attached photos of one of multiple hatchlings that fall in the storm drains. This is a federally protected marine animal and sadly, TI is not doing their part to help protect the sea turtle.

This is really unacceptable for this city to allow this to go on. It's clear the problem is with enforcement. As others have posted, handing out educational material is not solving the problem. I would imagine that code enforcement would actually have to come out at night (after a full day's work) to be able to witness a violation. And that is probably not a common occurrence. But someone from code enforcement needs to be on the scene at night when necessary to witness the violations and to then cite the violators. There just is no enforcement - that department is lacking. The department needs additional help to address the problem.

The city is provided 2 different lighting surveys conducted by the Marine
Turtle Permit holder every turtle season. It is an elaborate spreadsheet. The work is essentially done for the city as it lists the properties and the specific lighting issues. The same properties are in violation year after year and suffer no consequences. As of this year, not one violation has been issued. It is unacceptable.

Hellooooooo? TI code compliance, what's being done on this issue?

The City has, in recent conversations with the Home Owners Association (HOA) President for this property, discussed the lighting issue. It was determined that getting contact information for the property management companies, which manage these properties, was the greatest impediment to addressing this issue. The HOA President has agreed to provide the City with contact information for these management companies.
Knowing the property management companies will allow the City to contact the appropriate people and educate them about the laws and penalties regarding sea turtle protection and turtle friendly lighting. We have also developed educational materials which has been provided to the HOA President for distribution to owners and will be provided to the property management companies for placement in the units which they manage.
Education instead of enforcement has been the approach that has worked the best.

Bob Bray
City planner
City of Treasure Island, FL

This is indeed a step in the right direction and a long time coming after many many sea turtle hatchlings have died! It appears that most of the light bulbs have been replaced with red and amber bulbs. This is a start but not enough. I agree that education is key and should have been instituted a long long time ago on a consistent basis. It has to be ongoing, especially because of the constant change in ownership of the condos and beach front properties. But after a certain point and repeat offenders there has to be enforcement. In this case this property has been a major problem year after year after year and never has there been a violation according to public records. Nor have there been any violations assessed on any problematic TI properties that year after year cause disorientation of nesting sea turtles and hatchlings. Simply sending out letters and/or putting a flyer or the door knob is not, nor has it been effective. If property owners know that the City of Treasure Island takes the Wildlife Lighting Ordinance seriously then they will be more inclined to act and make changes. Unfortunately this takes assessing warnings and violations.
Three criteria needs to be met if a property is in compliance.
In order to meet the criteria for Wildlife Lighting, a fixture or lamp must meet all three criteria:
KEEP IT LOW
Mount fixtures as low as possible. Low mounted fixtures provide more light directly on the ground where it is needed for human safety. This also reduces the potential of the light source or lamp from being directly visible.
Use the lowest wattage or lumen output necessary for the needed purpose.
KEEP IT LONG
Use long wavelength (greater than 560 nm AND absent wavelengths below 560 nm) light sources such as amber, orange, or red LEDs without the use of filters, gels, or lenses. Using long wavelength light sources is less disruptive to marine turtles than white or multi-colored lights.
Short wavelength light sources, PC Ambers, RGBs, dual lighting boards, and color change options are not acceptable.
KEEP IT SHIELDED
The fixture must meet or exceed full cutoff. This is defined as no light emitting above a 90-degree plane.
The fixture must be shielded so that the lamp or glowing lens is not directly visible.

Unfortunately, Sunset Chateau is not yet in compliance and will continue to be problematic for sea turtles.

Has Sunset Chateau reached compliance on the Wildlife Lighting Ordinance?

Thank you for reporting this issue request via SeeClickFix.

Almost 4 years later, checking to see if the issue has been resolved. Code enforcement did not update us.