6 property owners will now appear in front of a State Administrative Judge next week, down from 8 one week ago. The town of Fort Myers Beach is going after these property owners to remove trailers and conex storage boxes.
1249 Estero Boulevard, owned by Mike and Dawn Miller, where they are rebuilding The Whale restaurant is no longer on the agenda. And, 2450 Estero, which appeared to have a real estate trailer and Mom’s food truck has been continued to the February meeting, without explanation. The other 6 property owners will be required to appear in Town Hall on January 7th unless they come into compliance before then.
La Ola in Times Square has been the highest visibility property in the town’s crosshairs for months. The popular restaurant and bar, owned by Thomas Houghton, has been operating out of shipping containers and food trucks since shortly after Hurricane Ian. The property is owned by Chris Primeau and his family. To date Primeau has not presented any of his own plans to the town to rebuild anything on that property. He was part of a Times Square group that showed off rendering months ago but that seems to have fizzled out.
Houghton has hired attorney Amy Thibaut from the Roetzel & Andress law firm in Fort Myers to represent him. He would like to be able to stay in the Times Square location with the setup he has now.
FEMA has told the town La Ola can no longer operate in Times Square being that it is on ground level and is in the high velocity zone. Houghton was hoping to be able to operate through this season to help recoup some of the financial losses he’s suffered after losing his business. He has also demonstrated that he can remove the trailers from Times Square in just a few hours. He did it and send the town a video of the success of moving the trailers back when Hurricane Milton called for evacuating the town.
Sun & Fun Rentals is also on the agenda for next week. Sun & Fun is operating its business out of shipping containers on Estero Boulevard where the former Liki Tiki bar and restaurant stood before Hurricane Ian. The business is owned by Steve Larson.
Himmelstein Associates is also on the state agenda. It does not list an address, however, this is most likely the new furniture store Robert Himmelstein is building in front of the Sea Grape plaza which also has a few boxes being used to store materials as they build their store in the old bank building. There is also a food truck on the Himmelstein owned property in front of the plaza.
Two condo buildings are on the list; Winward Passage and Island Towers, most likely for storage boxes as they repair their buildings. And, the trust of Patricia Smith is the final listing. There are no details given for those three.
In November the town began to target property owners with shipping containers and conex boxes on them in response to correspondence it was receiving from FEMA all relating to the National Flood Insurance Program. A total of 53 properties made the town’s initial list. Many of those have since come into compliance. There are now under 15.
Those that choose to fight the code violation will go before the administrative judge in Tallahassee via Zoom with the first meeting scheduled for January 7th. On the other side of the table will be the town’s code enforcement office, asking that the boxes and containers be removed immediately. That meeting will be open to the public and we plan to carry it live on our Facebook page and YouTube channel. If the judge rules in the town’s favor, property owners can apparel the decision to the circuit court. If they lose the appeal and do not come into compliance the town can then start issuing fines.
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The original post Ian rules were that a HOME OWNER was allowed to park a trailer on their land only after they were under contract to build a new home or reconstruct their damaged home. This was not supposed to be for guests, renters, contractors,etc. As usual our Mayor/town council/deputy have all turned their heads and allowed literal strangers to park their RV’s in our neighborhoods. Allers will probably make up some excuse once again. Do we really need anything else to attract more crime? or anything to lower the values our our homes any more than we already have had to deal with? We are now dealing with strangers in hoodies walking up and down our streets, bikes being stolen, shootings over thugs scamming people for tennis shoes??? Come on people!!! Is this what we want on our island?
So, the code enforcement official whose job it was to see that those things were removed and didn’t, even telling council in October he refused to, will now lead the town’s case that they must be because those owners are violators.
That’s the town’s case? Really?
What is going on with the people living in trailers on Beach Baptist property?
Beach Baptist has their property listed on Harvest Host which I am not sure how this is being allowed. Pretty sure you are still only allowed to be living/sleeping in a RV on your property with a permit. But it appears the town enforcement is picking and choosing who they target.
There is one trailer on Beach Baptist campus that is a permitted dwelling unit. Any other overnight parking is simply what’s called “sanctuary”. Churches are allowed to offer people a safe place to park for the night as they are passing thru an area.
That’s BS!!! I walk by there every day and there are more than one RV parked there for more than 24 hours. I guess churches are allowed to violate the laws in the name of the Lord.
I agree Steve. Sad commentary when the system is being manipulated in the name of Lord.
So a state administrative judge can over rule FEMA?
No – this is all just smoke and mirrors so that the town can attempt to “pass the buck” on responsibility.