With the full backing of the Local Planning Agency, former Mayor and current LPA Chair, Anita Cereceda will go before the Town Council Monday to object to mobile businesses like Queen of Weed popping up on Fort Myers Beach.
Cereceda will emphasize that this is not so much about what this business is selling, it’s about how the town has changed course from what they originally intended after the storm, which was to help existing business that lost everything.
At the LPA meeting last week Cereceda said it’s not about this business. “After the Hurricane, the Town Council generously decided to create an ability for existing beach businesses to operate in temporary situations. That was the effort and the sincere wonderfulness of the council. So something like Queen of Weed is not a business that was on Fort Myers Beach. It’s just somebody that’s come to lease space and that is not at all what was in that provision. I’m saying this in a public meeting to encourage the Town Council and the town staff to revisit this”
The Queen of Weed truck sits in the heart of Times Square on property owned by Terry Persaud. Persaud owned Sunset Grill which was a restaurant destroyed by the storm. He did not sell the products now available in the mobile truck he’s renting space to.
Cereceda said perhaps the change in course was due to the new staff, such as Town Manager Andy Hyatt and Operations and Compliance Director Frank Kropacek. “There could be a million different reasons. But the purpose behind it was to protect existing businesses on the island as they rebuilt. What I’m afraid is going to happen is, if this continues, the unanticipated consequence of not staying true to the original council intent, is, it’s going to squash redevelopment. It becomes a financial decision. If I can make a million dollars in a truck, why would I build a structure?”
The questions facing this Town Council are; Do they want the mobile businesses to continue to proliferate? How long is too long for mobile businesses to operate? If the Town Council knows a mobile business operator has absolutely no plans to rebuild, do they allow them to continue and for how much longer? If they do plan to rebuild, what date should they submit a plan?
Cereceda continued: “How long are you going to let this sit before you say; ‘Hey, I know you’re waiting for insurance money, but it’s an eyesore to our community. Hey, I know you’ve got a permit for a trailer but what’s your plan?'”
She added, “As we encourage redevelopment on the island, I think we have to be consistent and this right now is a sticky wicket for the town.”
When asked whether this is a code enforcement issue by another LPA member, Community Development Director Sarah Probst said “We should be validating whether they were here or not previously.” That contradicts the approval of the Queen of Weed permit.
Cereceda went on to say that the Fort Myers Beach code states that mobile vendors are not permitted in the town. Here’s the section of the code (96-14) Cereceda was referencing: “Transient merchant means any person who engages in the temporary business of selling, offering for sale or exhibiting for sale any goods, wares or merchandise within the town from any motor vehicle, wagon, truck or trailer, or who hires, leases, uses or occupies any hotel or motel room, or any lot or parcel of land through or from which any goods, wares or merchandise, whatever type, form or characteristic, may be sold, offered for sale or exhibited for sale.”
She then noted that mobile vendors are permitted in the emergency ordinance (23-05) passed after the storm.
Cereceda said that what the council did after the storm had good-hearted intentions. She then added, “You have to decide what you want your community to look like.”
We sent the following questions to Town Manager Andy Hyatt and Operations and Compliance Director Frank Kropacek two times this week: Andy/Frankie: Can you give us clarification on the Queen of Weed permit and how they received a permit being they were not a pre-existing business in or anywhere near Times Square? Back in the early days of the storm the Town Council’s intent was to help existing businesses. Have things changed and any business can now apply for a “truck” permit as long as they have a willing rental partner?
Hyatt and Kropacek did not answer our questions. On Thursday, the town PIO sent us this statement from Kropacek: “The landowner did everything proper to secure the permit. Being on private property, and the fact that the Queen of Weed is not violating any Town ordinances, it is leaving us with no position to take at the moment. The Town does not necessarily like this, but for now, we have to allow it.”
The Town Council meeting begins at 9AM Monday and we will carry it live here on Facebook and on our YouTube channel.
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