On Thursday the Fort Myers Beach Town Council directed staff to make changes to the town’s Comprehensive Plan to allow residential homeowners, who own legal non-conforming lots, to build back the exact same living space square footage as they had before the storm.
The issue came before the council this week as they continue to deal with their post-disaster build back following Hurricane Ian. Hundreds of residential homes were destroyed or severely damaged on September 28, 2022 and the top priority of this council has been to get residents back in their homes as quickly as possible.
Many homes were built on Fort Myers Beach before incorporation in the mid-90’s that were lost in the storm. Because of when they were built, those homes were labeled legal non-conforming. That basically meant they were grandfathered in and did not have to conform to the new building rules the town put in place when it incorporated. Hurricane Ian changed all that.
When you apply the town’s current code rules to a now empty lot, that once had a legal non-conforming home on it, that property owner might not be able to build back what was there before the storm. Many of those homes that are now gone were vacation rentals.
The Town Council directed staff to draft changes to the Comprehensive Plan that would make the build back more clear. They will allow homeowners to build back what they had before as long as they have solid proof of what they had before. Everything that was previously usable space within the walls of the structure, ground floor and above, can now be usable space above base flood elevation. The property owner cannot increase the number of bedrooms or units. The number of bathrooms can be increased but cannot exceed the number of bedrooms.
The proposed changes must still go before the LPA and then onto the state for review. Mayor Dan Allers says property owners can start rebuilding now based on these changes. “We’re giving them what they had without giving away the farm.” He doesn’t believe there will be any issue getting the changes approved because the changes are actually giving property owners more options. The state mostly frowns on municipalities building roadblocks on property owners rights.
The town has been addressing the buildback in small pieces to this point, giving homeowners variances to build new homes on oddly shaped and non-conforming lots and creating new rules for cottage homes that were lost, for example. A joint meeting of the LPA and Town Council Tuesday regarding the future of the Comprehensive Plan is expected to set the stage for all future development on the island.
While getting residents back in their homes is the top priority for this Town Council, many island residents are also waiting to see how the LPA and Town Council handle and vote on commercial proposals made by developers such as Moss Marina, the owners of the Neptune, Myerside and London Bay. None of those big commercial projects have come before the LPA as of today.
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