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.
My town in NJ shore built 20′ high, 100′ wide dunes…it took years to get through all the law suits from beach front owners that did NOT want it as it blocked their view…good luck..
NO! Beachfront property is so folks have a view of the ocean and the beach, not a concrete wall!! This will only create large, trapped pools of water on the other side of the wall, that will need to be pumped out (more $$ for maintenance), Turtle nesting will be non-existent. This will just be another huge expense year after year for repairs/maintenance!! Plus, I thought the town was low on funds, hence the reason for the tax increase!!! Why on earth would they agree to spend 60K to start a project that will end up costing millions?!? In my opinion, the town needs to make a commitment to enforce the cleanup, elimination of potential hazards on the island that will cause so much more damage during a storm first and foremost!! Cleanup the environment/island FIRST!! Seriously, what are these people thinking??? Put that 60K towards cleanup efforts and/or debt the town supposedly already has!! Can’t believe this is even a consideration right now!!
Deb you spoke the wisest truth! How can the so called leadership of this town even consider spending more taxpayers money while crying over the need to raise our taxes? The recall should include the other 3.
Michelle~ Are you a homeowner on FMB? If you were then you would understand why something like this could save property and most importantly, save lives. It would stop the velocity of the surge crashing onto the island and pushing all the sand and debris onto our properties. I’m going to bet you do not live here.
Michelle is a beachfront homeowner.
All the people who spend their time thinking of ways to disrupt the beach for the length of the island and disrupt the flow of traffic with more island long construction projects, while at the same time telling me to put the turtles first, need a new hobby.
If it’s claimed design is to “slow the velocity of water”, will it change FEMA’s determination of what is in the velocity zone?
No way! It would ruin our gorgeous beach. Fort Myers Beach is a gem, please do not wreck it. Horrible idea. What are they thinking???
How many hundreds of millions of dollars would it cost to build a seven-mile-long wall? Sea walls are known to cause beach erosion. You can’t stop Mother Nature when she calls. No one has yet. Due to regulations, gauging contractors, and insurers who won’t pay, most condo buildings are still not open three years after Ian. How is anyone going to pay for this when we can’t even get our homes rebuilt?
Right on Deb. Is there ANY scientific evidence to support the efficacy of a mitigation wall ( seawall)?
Why did the town not allow Tom to build a seawall?
What does a sea wall do to the sea grass?
We have heard credible evidence that the ill conceived beach nourishment has destroyed our sea grass environment.
Maybe we can concentrate on preserving habitat?
At her first presentation to the town council, Ms. Fountain suggested that the wall would have to be built landward of the 1978 CCCL. If that’s the case, it might be impossible to have an island-wide solution. There are probably a dozen buildings over that line (constructed prior to 1978), and many more built right up against that line (remember the Orlandini/Persaud building south of Junkanoo that had to be reduced back behind the line?). Before we spend $60k on a plan and community meetings, could we confirm the impact of the 1978 CCCL?
I think the town has bigger fish to fry at the moment and doesn’t need to spend 60K on a study of a seawall,I heard we’re broke anyway…
Just a thought. If a builder like London Bay has a 300 ft.beach front.and they are building a wall…make them build on both sides of their wall say another 300 ft of wall…you just received 600 ft of wall for free…now if all new construction does that.you cut the cost down.. existing big commercial buildings can also be brought into he mix.
MILLIONS of taxpayers paid for the wall that protects the entire country from improper and illegal immigration.
FMB doesn’t have that kind of tax base…oh, but who cares they’ll just raise taxes ANOTHER 26%!!
No wall! How rediculois!
Move to NJ.
So other seaside communities have built a version of an elevated sea wall. Look at Galveston TX, and various towns at the NJ shore. In addition to the wall they made it wide enough to be a cement boardwalk which is an attraction itself and could provide an e-bike path. In a storm nothing will stop the water, it will just come around the bayside or over the wall ,etc., the wall may mitigate the wave action directly behind it. Then the beach in front of the wall becomes a big hole that needs to be replaced. With the federal government pulling back funding for beach renourishment that may be an expensive problem. But it will not look nice and I doubt beachfront owners will allow it. Also if our tax dollars going to this every taxpayer should have access to the taxed town built wall and beach. Tough problem. We live on a migrating barrier island.
This is a prime example how the smart ( LOL ) town rejects good ideas like kicking developers from getting approval for wonderful builds like red coconut. It gets to the point investor will stop doing proposals. Same is happening now with Time Square! People get feed up! Enjoy the look of Town Square it will be many many years before you get any other proposals. Realizing they (town of ft myers beach) don’t have funds in their acct because of killing these money generating commercial properties. They will falsely increase property taxes to outrageous levels and put the burden on the residents who are already cash strapped! Shame on this bureaucratic mentality that only hurts the beach!
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every waterfront development should be required to build or escrow money to build the wall
The wall sounds like a great idea. If nothing else, it’ll help lower surge Storms. If we can build one across our southern border, i’m sure we can do a simple seven mile length. 🙂
It also will help keep the millions of dollars of sand from being lost after each storm. We end up with 4 ft of sand in our pool garage,etc. everytime. The wall will also keep those turtles from crossing the road.
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.