La Ola attorney Amy Thibaut has filed the restaurant’s final brief with the Lee County Circuit Court. The Town of Fort Myers Beach is trying to remove La Ola from its current location in Times Square.
The case started months ago when Florida Administrative Judge John Laningham, acting as a Special Magistrate for the town, ruled that La Ola was in violation and needed to be out of Times Square by March 1st or face daily fines of $250. Owner Thomas Houghton appealed the ruling on February 12th, ten days after Laningham’s ruling, to the Lee County Circuit Court and that started a back-and-forth of filings between the town and Houghton’s attorney Amy Thibaut. The filings ended with the most recent filing (READ IT HERE). The next step is for the court to set a hearing. The timing of when that will be set is unknown.
The race to chase La Ola from Times Square started when FEMA told town officials they wanted all containers, conex boxes and anything else that could fly around in a storm removed from the island. FEMA then proceeded to take away the town’s 25% discount in FEMA’s National Flood Insurance Program. Mayor Dan Allers and the town staff have put the town on the path to get the discount back and Allers has made it clear he believes La Ola needs to go in order to make FEMA happy.
FEMA told the town that all structures that could not be removed from the velocity zone quickly with a light duty pickup truck must be removed. La Ola owner Thomas Houghton demonstrated he could dismantle his operation and move his containers off the island in just a few hours. He videotaped how he did it shortly before Hurricane Milton in 2024. La Ola’s containers are on wheels in Times Square but do need a bigger truck to pull them. It’s unclear a La Ola win in court might mean to FEMA if anything.
In the most recent filing Thibaut states that the town misstated facts in the case. The filing mostly takes shots at town staff members and criticizes the evidence put forward by staff to try to have La Ola removed.
Houghton does plan to rebuild on the site which is owned by Chris Primeau and his family. He’s released drawings of a new restaurant and is now going through the early steps to start the rebuild. He’d like to be able to stay setup on the property for as long as possible before the rebuild starts.
If the court rules in favor of the town, Houghton and Primeau are also facing the possibility of $250 per day fines dating back to March 1st. By the end of June that would amount to $30,000.
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