The 2nd reading for the Segate/Red Coconut proposal has been pulled from the Town Council’s Monday agenda. For the second time the town is rescheduling Segate’s public hearing. In fact, the town is now going to hold two more public hearings for the project.
The town originally moved the second public hearing from October 28th to this coming Monday after it was discovered it was not properly noticed for the November 4th Town Council meeting. The new plan was to hold that second public hearing this coming Monday, November 18th. At the October 28th meeting the project was approved by a vote of 4-1 with Mayor Allers dissenting stating the proposal did not fit in with the vision of the town’s Comprehensive Plan.
The town has now received inquiries as to whether the first public meeting (on October 28th) was properly noticed. According to Mayor Dan Allers the Seagate proposal is the first Development Agreement the town is considering and despite the town attorney and Segate attorney both agreeing that the public hearings were properly noticed, out of an abundance of caution, they will hold 2 more public hearings in December.
Florida State statute 166.041 requires “proposed ordinances be read by title, or in full, on at least 2 separate days and shall, at least 10 days prior to adoption, be noticed once in a newspaper of general circulation in the municipality.” Fort Myers Beach uses the Fort Myers News-Press to notice their public hearings. It’s unclear specifically why the town might be worried enough about the public noticing to be holding two more public hearings other than this is the first Development Agreement the town has ever considered and they want residents to see they are being overly transparent.
Seagate CEO Matt Price told Beach Talk Radio News that obviously this is a bit of a setback. “From the start we said we were going to do this the right way. I made that promise to the community. This is the right thing to do.”
In October the LPA recommend the Town Council reject the project in a 4-2 vote with Chair Anita Cereceda stating the public benefit offered was not enough for the height being asked for.
The first public hearing will be Monday, December 2nd and the second public hearing will be on December 16th.
Seagate purchased the 10-acre Red Coconut property in 2023 for $52 million and plan to build two 17-story condo towers, 4 single-family homes, a beach club, a restaurant and several parks.
There’s a contingent of Fort Myers Beach residents and visitors who believe the Town Council is selling out the town by approving taller buildings, which was the main reason the town incorporated in 1995. On the flip side there’s a group of people who believe if these projects are not approved, and construction doesn’t get moving, developers will not invest in Fort Myers Beach and these lots will sit empty for years to come. With these two additional public hearings about the project there will be plenty of time for both sides to prepare their 3 minutes of public comment and attend one or both meetings.
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