(By Beach Baptist Pastor Shawn Critser) Now that code violations have been officially issued, as a business/community resource center that received one, I would like to make a statement to the Fort Myers Beach community.
On April 30 of 2024, I submitted permit number 241228 to the town of Fort Myers Beach for a temporary structure for First Baptist Church of Fort Myers Beach. My structure was inspected, reviewed, and approved by Kendra Rosa in zoning and then inspected by Christopher Cox of the Fort Myers Beach fire department for compliance and approved by Jennifer Campbell on September 11 of 2024. On August 31 of 2024 I received the official notification of approval.
On October 28 of 2024 town officials took photos of my property and wrote up a code violation based off of a FEMA official correspondence with which has been proven to have been delivered to the town of Fort Myers Beach in July 2024. The notice of this code violation was not officially given to me until November 13, 2024 when it was posted on my building, officially giving me five days to take action.
I would like the dates here to be noted, that my permit and inspection/approval occurred AFTER the town of Fort Myers Beach received the official mandate from FEMA.
Based off of Beach Talk Radio’s story HERE, the town responded and said that they “hoped the judicial process would be longer, so that businesses could operate through busy season.”
I translate this as the town not agreeing with the FEMA mandate, and declaring that they will simply do what they want to do as a town government. This is proven today by semi’s not coming in to pick up and remove the town of Fort Myers Beach temporary structures per FEMA mandate.
Moreover, FEMA’s mandate declares that all temporary structures must be able to be moved by a half ton pick up truck. The maximum weight of any half ton pick up truck is 10,000 pounds. Therefore, no fifth wheel located on Fort Myers Beach would be able to stay. Only small/bumper pull travel trailers.
My question is, how can the town of Fort Myers Beach expect compliance and fee collection with any code from its residents , when it/they are publicly defying a higher authorities mandate?
Shawn Critser
Beach Baptist
shawn@beachbaptist.org
The town has lost 3 trucks from hurricane milton. How come we have not heard a story about that?
The point stands, even though the above commentary is well put and well directed. Property owners, residential and business, will eventually foot the bill. All of we insured receive benefit from our policies, but is having a temporary down island structure as valuable as the extra cost of insurance? This position may not be the end-all answer, but it will always be a part of the pressure.
Mr Mayor,
There was a lot of smoke and mirrors in that response.
1. Read the letter. (Only after it was posted on social media). Our town should have made it officially known to those affected at that time. If the town was aware of who might be affected, then you need to evaluate their job competency. They issued permits to our structures after reviewing for a month about flood levels and deciding that those requirements didn’t apply to us.
We spent $150,000 to install trailers with town permission after relying on the town to know what’s allowed.
2. Why weren’t we told at permit issuance that “there may be some issues with this”?
Not one slice of communication led us to believe that the money spent on installing our trailers could be wasted. I truly believe there is town culpability here and we’ll definitely see how that plays out.
3. You told me yesterday that temp town hall wasn’t even included in this mandate, yet you posted a violation notice anyway.
What was that? A big show? A waste of time and money?
Or
More smoke and mirrors?
Shawn, can you please share a link to the July FEMA letter (prior to your permit issuance) where FEMA specifically addressed the issue of trailers on the beach…and their expectations for compliance? I have not seen where they specifically addressed trailers in July, so what you’re saying is confusing without that documentation.
The letter has not been issued to the public, only referred to on social media and discussed in town council. It obviously addressed temporary structures and stated that those structures had to be able to be moved by a 1/2 ton pickup.
I’m really not certain what you’re saying is accurate for the July letter, which is why I was asking. I totally understand your point about the timing of your permit if the July letter was as clear about the removal temp trailers with 1/2 ton trucks, as it is in your comment above, but not sure how you could know that if you don’t have a copy of it.
A friend reminded me of what we are forgetting.
Anyone who remembers what this island and mangroves looked like after Ian can thank FEMA for cleanup and removal of the debris. It would likely look much the same had they not. Granted, it makes no sense to impose their ruling at the end of hurricane season instead of 6-7 months later but how many affected structures would be any closer to a new building or structure come June? There are 2 ways to stop FEMA from meddling in your lives;1- Don’t call and expect their help in the next disaster. 2-Comply with their requests so they don’t HAVE to come back.
On the other hand the constitution does not give the federal government authority create any entity they want. Article 1.section 8. 1-18 list all the powers granted them by the Constitution. No matter how much it may benefit you, it was created without the consent of all states. I would doubt taxpayers from Iowa want to continually fund FMB’s disaster cleanup. It’s been more than two years… time to break ground folks.
Please take a look at Mango st from Estero to the Bay and then remind FEMA where they let us down by NOT cleaning the mangroves. They are horrible and the debris is worst than any other area of the island, no questions asked. This is mostly still from IAN.
I had thought the temporary structures issue with FEMA was only for areas within the Coastal High Hazard Area which is the Velocity zone and areas within the Coastal A section. The Beach Baptist Church is outside of these zones. Is FEMA saying that it doesn’t matter which zone it is in now? The same goes for the town hall, they are outside of these zones. The Velocity and Coastal A zones are where wave action is expected, not just rising water.
Residents are closest to their elected local Municipal officials and expect them to intimately understand their needs and expectations. It’s true every Municipality receives their power from the State and they are recognized as the higher authority. However, the Federal Government doesn’t have the same power as the State. In this case, FEMA has the funding for the NFIP Flood program so certainly has authority over that specific part, but it does not mean that the State nor the Municipality should blindly accept their mandates when they’re nonsensical and create hardship for the people. I would argue it’s actually the Town Council’s duty to push back to a Federal bureaucracy when that occurs and is exactly why local government is formed. There is nobody on earth who could argue a good reason for a mandate to remove trailers at the END of hurricane season so this just clearly indicates an inefficiency and lack of compassion by FEMA. The Town Manager has also made it clear multiple times that he believes FEMA will drop the Town from the discount regardless of what happens. Residents should be very thankful the Town Council and the County have been pushing back on FEMA because it will not get better if everyone just blindly complies with bad policies. Remember all of these agencies work for US and we can fire them anytime we choose.
Mr. Critser may translate however he would like, but his accusation that the town will simply do whatever they want as a town government is completely false. If Mr. Critser has not read the entire letter dated July 19, 2024, I encourage him to do so.
The letter clearly states that the town must provide documentation of how we are going to deal with code violations now and into the future. I have added the specific part here for his review.
3. Provide documentation that demonstrates your community is leveraging its code enforcement process to address new and existing code cases for all structures not confirmed as compliant. When a violation is confirmed, remedy to maximum extent possible. This includes:
a. In Item 2 above, structures identified during the evaluation as a Code Enforcement Case
b. Structures identified when assessing the Special Flood Hazard Area for all Hurricane Ian
impacts to structures.
4. Put a process in place to ensure substantial damage compliance for future events.
The town responded to that letter with our CAP (community action plan) for review by FEMA by their deadline. Their response was that our plan that follows our code requirements that existed pre Hurricane Ian were “insufficient”. That response came just last month.
If you go back and read that letter from July you will notice that nowhere in the letter does it say anything about trailers, it only refers to structures in high hazard flood zones. Specific businesses and trailers were only pointed out to our staff when in person meetings with FEMA were had. At no time have those businesses specifically been called out in any official letter from FEMA that I am aware of.
FEMA’s letter from July is not talking about just trailers and containers. It’s also talking about the houses like the one across from the Pink Shell and Wyndham itself. The town is applying its code violation requirements the exact same way to all scenarios Yet, the focus is only on a few businesses that have not been named in any FEMA letter prior to our letter asking for reconsideration of the 18th deadline to correspond with the start of next Hurricane season.
We will continue to work and communicate with FEMA to ensure we are meeting the requirements they are demanding to show we are following and dolling through with our code violation requirements. It is also important to remember this is not specific to FMB. This is happening to almost all of Lee County.
Thank you Dan for the clarification. Can you inform us when the town first contacted Byron Donalds, Marco Rubio and Rick Scott, when responses were received and any subsequent communication? Thanks
Hi Dave,
I do not have the exact date of when the first communication took place. Many of the initial discussions were in person. That was followed up by list of questions presented through Senator Scott’s and Congressman Donalds offices directly to FEMA for answers. As we received responses we would provide more questions. Meanwhile our staff was working directly with our local FEMA representatives and the Atlanta regional office to provide the requested documentation and plan to bring the structures into compliance. We have always met FEMA’s deadlines for information for their review. When they reply with more requested information we meet that deadline. We feel we have provide that path with our COP based on the codes we have in place. It will be up to FEMA if following our codes to bring structures into compliance and property rights matter when they render their final decision.
FEMA knows exactly when the communications took place because written communication is the only form of official document ion, unless verbal occurs in person and is recorded in an official capacity.
Here I will list facts from the aforementioned July 19th, 2024 letter from FEMA to the Town Of Fort Myers Beach.
1. “ The Town of Fort Myers Beach was granted 6 0 days (June 10, 2024), to submit to FEMA any new
information related to the deficiencies and substantive violations detailed in FEMA’s April 8, 2024 Findings
Report.”
2. “ During the 60-day review period, the Town of Fort Myers Beach provided FEMA permit documentation for
105 sites. FEMA reviewed the submitted documentation, for the 105 sites as well as the Town of Fort
Myers Beach’s Narrative and supporting documentation.”
3. “ Failure in permitting system, which allowed the use of “temporary” non-compliant structures (Including
shipping container and trailers/food trucks). LDC CH 6, Art IV, Div, 4, Sec 6.443 (3)&(4), LDC CH 6, Art IV, Div
6, and LDC CH 6, Art IV. Div 6, Sec 6-462, Sec 6.463, and LDC CH 6 , Art IV Div 10, Sec 6-501,”
So if i have reviewed this document as closely as you have suggested … The town of fort myers beach was officially notified by FEMA of these issues back on April, decided to give out permits anyways in hopes that FEMA would change their minds, and is now giving us violations…..
I’m sorry Mr. Mayor, but your timeline and elusive wording will not stop the truth from being told. The town is at fault, end of story. How about we see the April 8th letter from FEMA and the town’s response…?
As always Dan, I appreciate when you explain the facts and not sit back allowing misinformation “out there”.
I think we also need to know how long it was between the July letter and their response.