It’s official: TPI-FMB approved unanimously
Fort Myers Beach resident Ellen Vaughan couldn’t attend Monday’s meeting.
But she made sure everyone knew she was there in spirit.
With the help of her friend, Gayle Crabtree-Pergoli, Vaughan crafted a life-sized plastic-bag version of herself, complete with her signature colorful clothes and I Support TPI-FMB shirt, to “sit in” her place.
The Vaughan look-alike was able to “witness” the Fort Myers Beach Town Council’s 5-0 vote to approve the TPI-FMB commercial planned development, which will place a 254-unit resort hotel, aquatic venue, restaurant and pedestrian bridge at the entrance to Fort Myers Beach.
The bulk of the hotel will sit on what’s now the Helmrich Plaza. It will be a maximum of 52 feet tall, from the ground up. The first level will accommodate a majority of the hotel’s required parking, with the use of mechanical stackers to stack valet vehicles, with three stories on top. Pending approval by Lee County, a pedestrian bridge over Estero Boulevard will be open to the public and also connect the resort to the other side of the road with the objective of eliminating pedestrian-vehicle traffic conflicts.
The development includes a restaurant that will be open to the public, a beach access, an aquatic venue for resort guests and up to 325 public users a day, and a new paid parking lot for the town.
“Never in our 22 year history has something this profound occurred,” Council Member Anita Cereceda said.
Compared to the development’s first public hearing, TPI-FMB’s final public hearing was almost anti-climactic.
This time, there wasn’t a tent outside shading the overflow public who didn’t get a seat in the chambers. This time, there weren’t hours of public comment and two days worth of council deliberations.
Instead, Monday was a verifying and hashing out of exact language for the rezoning request’s four deviations and 27 conditions.
Chambers were still standing-room only however, and 27 people stood up to say their piece about the project, both for and against. The majority of public speakers supported the project.
“I’m excited, really excited,” said beach resident, Miffie Greer. “You have the opportunity to be the council that changes our beach in a wonderful way.”
As part of the rezoning request, TPI Hospitality had asked the council for a deviation from density multiplier that is used to determine the density of a hotel in the downtown area. By right, TPI could build 84 units, according to Bill Spikowski, the town’s Land Development Code author and a consultant to the town. A deviation would permit them the additional density – and, the town’s documents encourages allowing increased height in exchange for an expanded water view corridor.
Rather than granting a deviation to the equivalency factor to get to the added density, however, the council preferred to grant the density as an exchange to the “exceptional circumstances” and benefits to the town the developer has proffered: the new town-owned parking lot, another beach access, a pedestrian bridge, a permanent view corridor to the Gulf, deletion of the business center at the base of the bridge and the donation of the Ocean Jewel property directly to the town.
And, Vice Mayor Joanne Shamp asked if the developer could tear down the Ocean Jewel building before the beginning of the next season – and Torgerson agreed.
“When you come over the bridge, you have this beautiful view and the arrival at the bottom is depressing,” Shamp said. “Then, they have a beautiful view all the way down and shows we’re back in business.”
Council Member Anita Cereceda said she wanted the town to advocate with TPI for Lee County to approve of the pedestrian bridge.
The Fifth Street pedestrian bridge was deleted during the April meeting; with the parking lot beside the Light House Resort staying status-quo, it was unneeded. Now, only the bridge across Estero Boulevard remains, and TPI Hospitality will have to gain approval from the county to build it since the road is owned by the county.
Shamp and Council Member Bruce Butcher agreed to support the pedestrian bridge at the county level.
With the majority of the deviation requests being passionately discussed in April, the biggest item discussed Monday was how the town’s new paid parking lot, beach access and Court Street access should be configured. The parking lot will be located at the south end of the development on the Gulf side of Estero Boulevard.
Torgerson had originally configured the parking lot to hold 30 parking spaces with two sidewalks on either side, each 4.5 feet wide. But at the meeting, he suggested instead deleting the southernmost sidewalk and instead making a 9-foot sidewalk on the north side of the parking lot, which would lead directly to the beach access.
Mayor Tracey Gore preferred the two-sidewalk model so there was a safe place on each side for families with small children to stand while parking and getting out their beach items.
But Council Member Bruce Butcher supported the 9-foot idea, saying that no one would use the sidewalk on the south side, anyway – and might not use the north side one much, either.
People would pull in, go to the back of their car, get out their beach items, and walk up the center of the parking lot, he said.
“I think we’re going a little crazy here with the two sidewalks,” he said.
Town consultant for the TPI project, Bill Spikowski, also thought the larger sidewalk was a better pick.
Torgerson said that the neighbor to the south, the Beacon Motel, had indicated to him that it would also prefer the 9-foot option, keeping the beach pedestrian traffic further away from the motel. Butcher, Shamp and Cereceda supported the 9-foot option.
The April vote was filled with visible emotion, but council members voiced their thoughts clearly during their final comments about the project and its impact to the community.
“It’s been three contentious years. Some people will like it, some people won’t, but at the end of the day, everybody will come together,” Gore said to the developer.
Beach residents might literally come together at TPI – for the 25 percent discount TPI-FMB will be offering to residents with a 33931 area code, which was the last condition on the list. Cereceda asked if Torgerson was serious – and he was. Anyone with a driver’s license showing their address can get a discount at the beach club, retail store or the restaurants.
Council Member Dennis Boback made a comment in opposition of the project at the beginning of the meeting, saying that he felt approving the project unraveled the point of the town incorporating in the first place – to control its future.
“Does approving this throw 23 years of incorporation out the door?” he said.
Gore also stated she thought the project was too big for the island. But in the end, both of them contributed their vote to the unanimous approval.
“I still think we’re setting a precedent. In a sense of unity with my council, I will bow to their will,” Boback said.
Cereceda said Boback, and others, shouldn’t worry about setting a precedent.
“To anyone who wants to stand up and say oh now I can do this, here are 19 pages of conditions that have been massaged for three years,” she said. “To do this (others) would have to meet all this criteria. Until they can, they should do everyone a good favor of just settling down a bit. This would be extraordinarily difficult to match.”
The vote came with a standing ovation from a majority of those in the audience. Torgerson said he thought a 5-0 was achievable, but up until the very end, wasn’t sure he’d get the unanimous support.
Torgerson is a Fort Myers Beach resident as well as the TPI-FMB developer.
“I really look forward to being a part of it, seeing it in operation,” he said. “I’m very emotionally attached to this project.”
He’s not the only one – community supporters embraced him, their council members and others after the meeting.
“As long as we can all drive over Matanzas Pass Bridge and see the Gulf and see its beauty, as long as there’s a pier jutting out, as long as there are dolphins and manatees in our waters, as long as every March there’s a Shrimp Festival and a parade and a big party after, as long as all those things are there and all the other great things, we’ll always be Fort Myers Beach,” resident Ray Murphy said. “All we want to do is make it a little bit nicer for everybody and ourselves. Tell the world, we’re going to make Fort Myers Beach the beautiful place it is.”