This week the Fort Myers Beach Town Council heard another presentation about a wave mitigation wall. A wall that would cost millions to build up and down the island, and could save millions of dollars worth of destruction if there’s another big storm. The focus this week was Times Square.
For about a year the Town Council has been discussing the possibility of adding a wave mitigation wall. The town has a $60,000 consulting contract with the engineering firm J.R. Evans to explore the wall. If built in the Times Square area, a wave mitigation wall may allow for a slight enough change to the flood plain map that would allow a property owner to get more use out of the ground floor than is possible now. There are other benefits according to J.R. Evans.
A wave mitigation wall is designed to slow down the wave action, the storm surge, from an approaching hurricane. Times Square is in the highest risk velocity zone and was decimated by Hurricane Ian in September of 2022. Storm surge was recorded anywhere between 10 and 17 feet from the pier down to Bayside Park from Ian. It was the violent storm surge that inflicted most of the damage.
Part of the Times Square rebuild challenge has been what can actually be built on that property being so close to the water. How high do the buildings have to be? How much will it cost to build a much taller restaurant or a retail shop? La Ola owner Tom Houghton has been looking into constructing a wave mitigation wall in front of his new building. It’s not cheap.
Fort Myers Beach Mayor Dan Allers says he measured from the northern edge of Lynn Hall Park to the southern edge of Crescent Beach Park. That came out to about 1,354 feet. At a cost of $1,000 per linear foot, the approximate cost for a Times Square mitigation wall would be $1.35 million.
If the town were to take that on, the obvious question would be; where would the money come from? Does the town partner with the local businesses and also look for grant money? Or, does the town create a Times Square Community Redevelopment District, a CRA, which would be a specific taxing district for that area that could only be used to address blight.
When TPI (Margaritaville) was pitching its Grand Resorts project, part of that plan was a mitigation wall for a good stretch of the beach, including Times Square. It would have been a public benefit TPI was willing to give the town. The Town Council at the time rejected it.
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