Town Will Be Demolishing Structures in April

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That’s what Fort Myers Beach Operations and Compliance Manager Frankie Kropacek reported Monday. Which structures are going to be demolished has not been made public.

Kropacek told the Town Council last month that there are 52 properties on the town’s unsafe structure list. They are now being red tagged by the Town Building Inspector and Kropacek says a Request For Proposal will go out soon for a contractor to start taking those structures down. Some properties may just need to be cleaned up so they are deemed safe. The contractor would also do that work.

It’s been more than 17 months since Hurricane Ian barreled through Fort Myers Beach damaging nearly every structure on the island. Many structures, both residential and commercial, have been demolished. Some are still dangling piles of debris with no real solution in the plans. Property owners ignoring the town’s plea to clean up their mess are the ones the town plans to go after aggressively.

Fencing a structure, whether its a home or a commercial building is no longer enough. Last month, Town Attorney Becky Voss said properties have to be brought back to code. “Securing property is not enough. It’s been more than a year. If they are not coming down, they need to be fixed.” She told the council they had tools in their toolbox to get property owners into compliance and she referenced the International Property Maintenance Code.

If the town must knock down an unsafe or abandoned structure a lien will then be put on the property to attempt to recoup the money it cost town taxpayers to knock the structure down. An additional step could be for the town to foreclose on the property.

We have asked the town several times for a list of the structures the town is going after and we’ve been told by Kropacek that it will be given to us to share with the public once the Building Inspector completes his work “red-tagging” them.

10 COMMENTS

  1. Old Fresh Catch needs to come down to. Real eyesore.. anyone know what’s going on with that property (junkaroo/fresh catch)? Is it going to tied in with the red coconut property?

    • The original Fresh catch has a big sign out there waiting on their insurance claim. There are others who just left town that we need to worry about. Let’s not worry about those who are fighting the corrupt insurance companies that will not pay!

  2. Will be interesting to see if the Wyndham is on the list. Almost sounds like they get a pass because they let the town store sand there. Plus, my goodness, how much would it cost the town to take down that motel, and why should the town have to and have to pay for it?!!?

    • The town sent an “unsafe/abandoned” letter to the Wyndham in September. (You can look it up in the town’s code violations database.)

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