Carmine Naccarato hired a new attorney who told the same old story that resulted in an identical ruling: pay the big fine, stop operating an illegal parking lot on Fort Myers Beach and apply for a special exception.
This week Fort Myers Beach Special Magistrate Monica Schmucker ruled in the town’s favor; that Naccarato has been operating an illegal parking lot at 1661 Estero Boulevard. After hearing the case earlier this month, Schmucker took about ten days to mull over the evidence before filing her decision.
Schmucker ordered Naccarato to cease operating the lot, notify the town when he’s obtained a special exception to operate a shared parking lot, and pay a fine of about $92,000. This fine started accruing on March 18th at $500 per day. Naccarato had paid a fine of $188,000 back in March which put an end to the lien process the town was pursuing after years of Naccarato ignoring the code violations. After he paid the $188,000 fine, Naccarato went right back to renting spots, without even applying for the special exception, giving the town the clear impression that his fines were just the cost of doing business. The town immediately started the code violation process again.
The town was also given the authority by the Magistrate to erect signage to let the public know the lot is illegal, something the town has never had the authority to do before. If Naccarato continues to operate the illegal parking lot, the $500 per day fines will continue. In July he did start the process to apply for a special exception. That doesn’t mean he’ll get one, the LPA and the Town Council have to approve it and with Naccarato snubbing his nose at the town for years, and raking in money with an illegal lot while other parking lot owners follow the rules, it’s certainly not a given.
The town has clearly stated that it would consider allowing Naccarato to charge for parking if he applied for a special exception. That is a 60-90 day process that starts with staff, goes to the LPA, then to the Town Council. Up until July of 2024, Naccarato has never gone through that process which forced the town to put a lien on his property in September of 2020. That lead to the town filing a foreclosure lawsuit against Naccarato in 2022.
There are 122 parking spaces in the Key Estero parking lot. Before Hurricane Ian, many of the spots were being used (for free) by customers visiting the businesses in the plaza. Now, there are no businesses and Naccarato rents every spot. In his special exception filing Naccarato is requesting he be allowed to rent 80 of his 122 spots.
During his first round of violations, Naccarato appealed the previous Magistrate’s order to pay the fines to the Circuit Court in Lee County and lost. His new attorney Amy Thibaut used the same argument that Naccarato lost on the first time around, that the parking lot has been used for renting spaces for over 40 years. She argued that the Key Estero property is a legal non-conforming use and has been since before the town was incorporated in the mid 1990’s. Schmucker ruled that Naccarato did not provide evidence that that was the case and he’s already lost on that argument.
Naccarato has 30 days to appeal the Magistrate’s ruling to Lee County. We reached out to Thibaut to see if Naccarato planned to appeal but have not heard back. On Thursday, the parking lot was open for business, renting spots for $10 for the day so the daily $500 fines continue.
Cement barricades put into place until he does what he is suppose to do. He’s not going to do anything till he quits earning money.
He makes more money a day than what he is what defines are so it’s cost of doing business and he says who cares and laughs in your face or in the judge’s face! So you want to really hurt him, put him in jail and his staff!
Maybe if they shut down the parking he will work on restoring the strip mall instead. Or sell it to someone who will.