San Carlos Island Will Not Be Annexed

In a less-then-ten-minute conversation at their Management & Planning meeting Thursday, the Fort Myers Beach Town Council decided to end any thought of trying to annex San Carlos Island.

The idea, first brought up by council member John King, really had no legs from the get-go. There has been no uproar from residents who live on San Carlos Island to be taken over by Fort Myers Beach. Despite sharing the 33931 zip code with Fort Myers Beach, residents who live on the other side of the Matanzas Pass Bridge (to about Pine Ridge Road) are considered unincorporated Lee County and they want to keep it that way.

When Fort Myers Beach incorporated it was from The Matanzas Pass Bridge to the Big Carlos Pass Bridge and the main reason for incorporation was to control the height of buildings on the island. One of the reasons incorporation plans stopped at the bridge was because those in favor of incorporation thought the effort might fail if they tried to cover the entire zip code. San Carlos Island residents pay property taxes to Lee County but pay Fort Myers Beach Fire Department and Library taxes.

King said Monday that San Carlos Island is already linked and identified as Fort Myers Beach. “It would add to our population and give us control of the look of the front door to Fort Myers Beach.” He said it would be nice to have some things on that side of the bridge taken care of. King might be right that some properties on the other side of the bridge are still in disarray after Hurricane Ian. The same could be said about Times Square just over the bridge, which is partially owned by the town itself. Or, the broken curbs and sidewalks and ugly medians on the north end of Estero, which the town also owns. 

Mayor Dan Allers said if someone wants to be annexed it should come from the people in the community who want to be annexed, not from us. On several posts on the Beach Talk Radio Facebook page, followers who claim to live on San Carlos Island were mostly opposed to the idea. 

In Florida, there are four ways in which an annexation may take place: by special act of the legislature, a voluntary annexation, an involuntary annexation or an interlocal agreement with the county. Florida statute 171 states: “Any municipality may annex contiguous, compact, unincorporated territory.” It’s unclear if the body of water separating Fort Myers Beach and San Carlos Island negates the two areas being contiguous.

The easiest way to annex property would be for property owners, in this case San Carlos Island, to petition the Fort Myers Beach Town Council to be annexed into the town. The Fort Myers Beach Town Council would then need to pass an ordinance annexing San Carlos Island. That’s the voluntary annexation option.

There is also an involuntary annexation. If that’s the route a municipality chooses, they must approve an ordinance calling for the annexation and hold 2 public hearings. Fort Myers Beach would need to produce a feasibility study that details services that would be provided to San Carlos Island by the beach. The majority of San Carlos Island voters would then need to vote in favor of being annexed. Fort Myers Beach can also decide to ask beach voters to vote on the annexation. If a majority of either group votes against annexation the issue fails and cannot be brought up again for 2 years.

According to The Florida League of Cities, current law requires that if more than 70% of the land in the area proposed to be annexed is owned by individuals, corporations or legal entities that are not registered electors of the area, the area cannot be annexed without the approval of at least 50% of the owners.

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