On Monday, the Fort Myers Beach Town Council approved the funds from their road impact fee budget to build the dirt parking lot on the old town hall property at 2525 Estero Boulevard.
You may recall that property had been used to store gigantic piles of town owned dirt transferred over from the Bay Oaks property. According to the town’s Community Services Director, Jeff Hauge, it would cost $400,000 to $500,000 to haul the remaining sand off the island. Rather than do that, it will be compacted down and used as the base for the parking lot. However, as the design of the lot evolved, it became clear that a retaining wall was needed to stabilize the site.
Adding the retaining wall pushed the cost of the project from $$72,466.54 to just over $138,000. The retaining wall cost is $65,586.59.
Town Manager Will McKannay said on Beach Talk Radio last week that a number of those spots can be sold to beach business employees who would be given a discounted rate. Many hotel, restaurant and bar employees have to pay for their own parking and it can be quite expensive during season. The discounted parking passes will be sold in 3-month increments. If a beach employee decides to use the lot, they can then catch the free tram or walk to their workplace.
The lot will have about 80 parking spots when it’s open to the public. It was not announced when the lot will be available, how much it will cost to park there, or how much of a discount beach business employees will receive. The town charges $5 per hour in many of its parking spaces.
Mayor Dan Allers was not happy that the town is not securing its own property. He let staff know there should be a fence around the property. And, he’s concerned about the safety of the retaining wall. “How are we going to prevent people from driving over the wall or people from walking on it and falling off? It just seems to me that we rushed this. There hasn’t been a lot of thought put into this and I would have liked to see this going through the M&P process. My biggest concern is the liability.”
A temporary fence will be installed sometime over the next few days or weeks during construction. Town staff will also look into what safety measures should be considered for the lot such as a permanent fence and lighting, which would also need to be funded.
The town will use this property as a temporary parking lot until its decided what to do with the land down the road.
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Have they considered the impact of beach goers parking there on nearby properties??? and not to mention the congestion that the food truck court is going to cause both in construction phase and afterwards!
Just another snafu by the town council. All the comments are justified and the soil should have been removed and the property sold to recoup the expense of removing the soil. There are double standards for the town and residents. Look what happened to Estero Blvd’, they are blaming Hurricane Ian, but the drainage problems existed LONG before the hurricane. WAKE UP TOWN COUNCIL!
My head is spinning. After Ian, we spent $5,000 for dirt to replace what the storm washed away. And we still need more. Now the town has all this unwanted dirt and they’re going to pay someone to haul it away. Thanks, again, Council.
It looks to me that if the City of Ft. Myers Beach have decided that they have no use for this piece of land it should be immediately put up for sale that way it becomes someone else problem and liability to deal with.( this is the way to stop a $ bleeding ) decision just get it done with.
Very true that the town should be legally required to adhere to the same rules, guidelines, ordinances, requests and often seemingly draconian requirements that are routinely placed on other parking lots. ‘Temporary’ lot or not. Fair is fair. If not, rescind the demands that were placed on others.
Anyone that thinks this parking lot plan is a bad idea should contact Terry and the Nazi to inquire about their revenue and profits.
Do nearby neighbors have to approve a change of use?
Agree. Decisions that impact current home owners have not been addressed fairly by the council.
Will the town put in landscaping as is required by their own rules? Will the entrance to the lot not be on Estero Blvd? Trashcans on the lot? Will it be just dirt or some kind of gravel? If not it will be a mud pit in rainy season
Did they do a drainage study? Did they do a survey? Are there swales? Don’t residents and businesses have to do those studies first? By the time they put up a fence and planting it will be half a million. Did they ask the neighbors if they wanted the dirt spread out on their property? Maybe they could have just spread it out on the church property next door. There goes the money from parking revenue. Not a good look.
Curious what’s already been spent, wall, drainage, signs, fence, debris that’s been hauled out ? Will all the employees walk to work to Time Square
Will they obtain a engineers report? Treated for termites, soil compaction testing. You know…the hoops they make us jump through. Oh and $5 an hour rate is ridiculous. This just fell into their lap, No expensive consulting fees or zoning. The base is already there. Just let the parking be free.
Great idea with the parking lot! Someone is thinking about saving money and infact making money for the island. Well done!
There are many empty lots that could probably use that dirt if it helps save money.
why not use the sand for the south end of the island
Not the same sand. ONKY a certain type of sand is permitted to be placed on the beach.