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.
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