Town Targets La Ola First

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The first – and only – case that has been assigned to an outside hearing administrator regarding trailers on Fort Myers Beach is La Ola. The town is using the Florida State Division of Administrative Hearings for all the trailer violations at a cost of $207.00 per hour to taxpayers.

Late last week we discovered there were 53 properties on Fort Myers Beach given a notice of violation for shipping containers. That could include containers such as what La Ola has in Times Square and containers homeowners and contractors are using to store materials or tools. Of those 53 violations 9 have already come into compliance and removed the containers. There’s no doubt others will also come into compliance in the coming days and weeks. Those that choose to fight the code violation will go before an administrative judge in Tallahassee via Zoom. On the other side of the table will be the town’s code enforcement office.

FEMA recently put the town of Fort Myers Beach on probation for 2 years (starting in April of 2025), eliminating the 25% discount thousands of residents were receiving for flood insurance. One of the reasons FEMA gave the town for putting the community on probation was “noncompliant structures that were incorrectly permitted and should not have been placed in the Special Flood Hazard Area.” In other words, the trailers. FEMA does not care that Hurricane season is coming to an end or that the big spending season is ramping up on the beach. 

The town also issued several code violations to itself for conex boxes on town property (not the town hall trailers). It appears despite the town indicating that it would be going first in front of a state administrative judge, La Ola has been moved to the front of the line. As of Tuesday of this week, La Ola was the only case on the D.O.A.H. docket. 

Thomas Houghton is the owner of La Ola in Times Square. The property is owned by Chris Primeau and his family. Primeau and Houghton were notified on September 18th by the town they were in violation of ordinance 6-501 and ordinance 6-525, for “keeping and/or maintaining non-compliant shipping containers on property, which are not built to current flood design codes in the Special Hazard Areas.” They were given 30 days to remove the containers, which they did not do. 

Primeau was then sent a letter notifying him a D.O.A.H. hearing would be his next step. Now that the case has been filed with the state, the hearing date must be set between 30 and 70 days from the filing date. In all likelihood that will push it into early 2025. The hearings will be held by Zoom, and we are told open to the public. 

What will be very interesting to watch will be what the town does with its own code violations. Operations Manager Frankie Kropacek has said he plans to represent the town in their code cases in front of the D.O.A.H. judge, which would pit Kropacek against the town’s code enforcement office in the hearing, employees that actually work under him. Even more interesting will be what happens if the judge levies a fine against the town in the case. Who would pay those fines and where would that money go? The town is expected to be in their new town hall building in early 2025 so with hearings probably not starting until January you have to wonder why the town is even going through the motions of these hearings for its own violations. Something else that’s quite interesting, Kropacek told us he’ll be helping others in the community that go before the judge that need help. That would put him on the other side of the town’s own code enforcement department in the cases. The town decided to go with the D.O.A.H judges and not use its own special magistrate Monica Schmucker to avoid any appearance of conflict of interest. How arguing a case against itself is not a conflict of interest is an unanswered question. 

It’s still unclear if trailers with wheels that can be moved with a pickup truck are legal to have on Fort Myers Beach. Mayor Allers said he needed to get more clarification from FEMA on that issue. Originally it was thought those types of trailers were OK to have on the island. Even though Houghton provided the town with a video showing he could remove his containers before a storm that apparently did not satisfy FEMA. They clearly want all non-compliant structures off the island ASAP. 

 

42 COMMENTS

  1. We have containers at LAC for elevator contractor ,and they are still working on elevators and we are walking up 6 floors.They need tools on site to get repairs done.can they be kept on site until work is finished ?

  2. Tom was the acceptation and actually followed his evacuation plan. The first that should go are those that did not take their trailers/ storage boxes off during Milton. All the contractor that left dumpsters and building materials unsecured that damaged other people properties should be heavily fine.

  3. Too broad of a brush. Our complex is in the middle of rebuilding the seawall so the contractor has two containers to store their equipment and some of the dock owner’s lifts. These containers are short term. If the contractor has to move stuff on and off island daily while they’re working…$$$. Doesn’t make sense.
    La Ola – as mentioned they did everything asked as a temporary solution. They’ll most likely be the first to cheer for restoring Times Square, but WHEN?
    Hurricane season is over. A 6 month notice makes more sense and let’s get Moving!

  4. Here we go again, FEMA has a set of rules for flood control areas this curtails many areas along ALL coastal areas NOT just FT. Myers Beach when was the last time you read about other flood prone areas going to these extremes. Again the residents of FMB are going to be responsible for additional cost due to these cases. When we don’t even know if a magistrate has the right to override FEMA’s directives. What a waste of tax payers money.

  5. I can’t believe any of this is being debated with a straight face.
    This is the biggest slap in the face to all the citizens of the beach.
    Fake judicial proceedings to cloud over incompetence.

  6. FEMA has too much power, little accountability, and a history of being ineffective at what their role. Look up past disasters, especially Katrina, and what FEMA did and mostly what they didn’t do.
    As far as La Ola – it is one business that has done everything to comply with what they have been told to do!! Meanwhile you have Terry Persaud that has spit in the towns face numerous times as if he’s untouchable! And how can you expect a business directly across the street to “rebuild” when the future of what that area is going to look like is still up in the air! This whole thing is crazy – let’s shut down businesses just when the snow birds and tourists are starting to return!
    Ugh😣

  7. Who can people write or email, to try to get this idea of removing trailers reversed ?- would like to support the businesses but also feel for those who have to pay the high flood rates – someone needs to make a rule using common sense. If we attend the Zoom meeting for La Ola will we be able to comment ?

  8. It is time for the town to be disbanded and revert back to the county. the town council, advisory boards and staff have all shown an incompetence and breach of their fiduciary responsibility to the owners and tax payers of FMB. you have had two years to FA, ignore all advice from outside agencies, allow blatant violations of your own code, continue to spend money on repairs that swept back into the gulf when the town floods and now we all are about to find out what the consequences will be.

  9. I think all the money that is collected should go to us that now have to pay a lot more for our flood insurance. Spread out equally. **I know this is impossible but seriously, we are the ones paying for it. I wish Las Olas could keep their trailers since it can be moved but at the end of the day the ones truly affected are us. **And I know it is two sided sword as they help the tourism and keep the island profitable.

  10. Disband the town. The town was incorporated to keep height to 4 stories. Now that the town has decided 17 stories are acceptable. So does the county. So why are we going to continue to pay town taxes when we can get the same political crap from the county. The county didn’t loose their discount

  11. Only Congress at this point can rectify the code violations listed with fema. Someone, now after the first of the year someone needs to propose a change to the code during months hurricanes are not prevalent. The only other chance of a quick change would be the President since he is a resident of Florida by declaration.

  12. It wasnt just the trailers that led to the loss of the discount. Almost every house had damage and most ground floor houses had 5-10 feet of water inside and many have been repaired without permits being pulled. And how many people have checked their Community Rating Discount line to see how much is really being lost. $14 for me

        • It’s a 25% increase in your premium. So if your premium is $4,000 you will now pay $5,000 for the same flood insurance because of the failure of the town complying with our own codes.

  13. If FEMA says they have to go, don’t they have to go?
    But there is an option to argue in front of the magistrate? Can the magistrate over ride FEMAs directive?

    • FEMA says they have to go to receive a discount. It isn’t a law that FEMA created. They don’t have the authority to make federal laws

  14. In typical government fashion FEMA mandates removal of trailers in natural disaster areas due to safety concerns of natural disasters not before but after the season for those disasters is over and the tourism season which could help recovery begin. This should be happening in April, not November.

  15. The loss of FEMA discounts are due to the city not following the rules. When will the class action law suit begin against the city?
    Most of the residents affected followed the rules to rebuild or repair, but we get penalized and have to pay up. It makes no sense. FEMA made us jump thru hoops to rebuild, then they say thank you for following the rules-but you get penalized anyways. Not to mention that the insurance companies cancel our policies after each storm.

    • It is the town’s responsibility to the residents to comply and enforce the rules. Even if we don’t agree!
      They need to get their act together and represent us, not always the businesses!!!

  16. Unfortunately, right now we live in a world with zero common sense and inability to critically think. Until FEMA is revamped, we have to play by zero common sense rules. Going in front of a magistrate does not trump FEMA rules, so why waste taxpayer dollars? The containers unfortunately have to go until rules are changed. And taxes shouldn’t go up for the next two years since the discount was lost. That’s the least the town should do since they were unable to follow the rules

    • I agree with you, but How is FEMA holding the town accountable for following our own codes zero common sense rules? The town is not adhering to our own codes and got caught by FEMA. Instead of adhering to our codes, the town leadership tried to get creative and of course it didn’t work. Now all flood insurance policy holders on the island will pay and additional 25% on top of what they pay now.

  17. Has a state representative or congressman been contacted for help? This FEMA rule seems antiquated based on the numerous storms hitting the coast. Rebuilding to hurricane codes takes years. All businesses should prove its trailer can be moved quickly for a hurricane. That should be provided by June 1st, the beginning of hurricane season, not November 18th, almost the end. If the proof is there, it should be approved. Seems like FEMA needs its policies reviewed and revised.

    • Based on your comments, you have no idea what the situation is. It’s not “FEMA policies” or rules, it’s fema holding the town responsible for following our own codes and not allowing code violations, which they are and this is why the town lost its flood insurance 25% discount.

  18. It’s been more than 2 years. If these businesses and individuals have zero blue prints from engineers and even a small attempt to present a rebuild to the town. The trailers and storage containers need to go……

    • I was thinking the same thing otherwise FMB would be a trailer island. They must show they are working on a permanent structure.

    • Exactly those of us who think the trailer’s were left too long are just tuned out. The mayor saying blame us? We did already and yet nothing changed. Why must we have the trailers? Because the business owners cannot afford to rebuild. So we can continue down this road of zero development being passed. Soon property values will be so low that developers can buy up everything at pennies on the dollar. All so you can have some beer wagons and absolutely unhealthy junk food. Loud music from speakers sitting outside that’s not controlled inside a building that’s insulated. I would rather live next to a well designed ten story resort at this point than continue the path redneck tourist trap.

      • We have all sat and watched the values of our homes go down and down. I can’t think of decision that has been made that has helped our homes go up in value. Town Council/Mayor are NOT helping us at all to recover the values of our properties. Keep in mind there are many people on his site that chime in like they are owners and they are not. They don’t even live in the state. So take them with a grain of salt. I for one am exhausted with waiting for the old RV’s, piles of rubble and dead foliage/trees to be removed. Town Council/Mayor should really removed and just let the city take over. At least they would be getting things done. If you drive to any of the other areas hit, including Sanibel, none of them still look as bad as FMB. The excuses are played out at this point. PLEASE ED can you please start to have other town council members on Sunday instead of just Dan? How about Andy? or Jim? Can we start to rotate? We really need to hear other voices so we can know what to expection. If I hear the words ” we need clairification” one more time, I’m going to scream.

  19. He has made a pretty clear case that his system works. How can the town defend itself when there in violation of the rules there should be a 6 months extension due to the lowering of risks .the end of hurricane season

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