All five members of the Fort Myers Beach Town Council would like to put the construction of an island-wide mitigation wall on warp speed. After experiencing the destruction of Hurricane Ian three years ago, council members would like to put their town in the best possible position to defend against future storms.
On Monday, the council gave Town Manager Will McKannay direction to spend approximately $60,000 with J.R. Evans Engineering. Senior Vice President of Floodplain Management and Stormwater Design at J.R. Evans Elizabeth Fountain made another presentation to the town council Monday hoping to move the process to the next step which would be for her firm to put together a plan to build the wall, options on how the town might pay for it, and organize meetings with the community. If an agreement is reached with Fountain’s firm she says she could have a proposal to show the Town Council in about 6 weeks.
J.R. Evans is already under contract with London Bay to build a mitigation wall at the old Outrigger property. We’ve asked both Fountain and London bay CEO Mark Wilson if that wall translates to London Bay being able to build any differently on the beach. We have not heard back as of the publication of this story.
The old Outrigger Tiki Bar was right on the sand and under the new rules it cannot be built back the way it was because that property is in the velocity zone. Studio A.D. Architect CEO Albrert Dambrose tells Beach Talk Radio that after the London Bay mitigation wall is built “the flood zone on the landward side of the wall will change to a coastal A zone. This allows for potential dry-flood proofing and commercial usages on the ground floor.”
What the town will need to figure out if a decision is made to work toward building an island-wide mitigation wall is how to get private property owners onboard. It was a tall and lengthy task to get property owners to agree to building the berm on their properties.
Also at the meeting Monday there was a lot of discussion about the Times Square area and whether or not this wall would allow property owners to build back on the ground. Every structure in Times Square was destroyed by Hurricane Ian. The property owners can not come to a joint agreement on what to build there. After putting together a fancy looking design and presenting it to the community over a year ago the property owners, as a group, have been silent about rebuilding. Only La Ola has a publicly released plan to rebuild and they are doing it separate from the other property owners.
While a flood mitigation wall will not stop a hurricane from pushing water onto a barrier island, its main function is to slow down the violence of a surging body of water like the Gulf. Hurricane Ian had its way with the coast of Fort Myers Beach with storm surges in some areas over 15 feet. There was nothing on the beach to slow down the water even a little. When TPI 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.
We interviewed Fountain on our Sunday show with the Mayor back in August and you can watch that interview HERE.
I believe London Bay has filed (is going to?) a flood plain zone amendment from the the V zone to AE. Sounds like it has been approved which gives them the ability to build on the ground.