Hurricane Harry’s permitting halted by Development Order
Nearly two months after owners stated they’d be open for business to the Fort Myers Beach public, Hurricane Harry’s doors still remain closed. The project has been denied a certificate of USE due to non-compliance with an existing development order.
According to the Lee County Community Development office, prior to Hurricane Harry’s, when the building was known as Warfield’s, the Development Order was changed from just a restaurant to that of a 50-room hotel, restaurant and “related matter.”
Communications manager of Lee Co. Community Development Joan LaGuardia explains the situation with the property.
“A Development Order (DOS2008-00107) was approved for a planned development, including a hotel, restaurant and other amenities for the Warfield’s Inn. That development was never done. The property owner later entered into an agreement to lease a portion of the property to be used as a restaurant. However, when he applied for his use permit (USE2010-01086), the existing DO was discovered and some violations came to light. The new applicant has to either comply with the existing development order or return to us with an application for a new development order,” she said. “We are working with the applicant on this, and we have referred the applicant to the engineer who originally worked on the DO. The biggest issues involve parking buffer requirements and some clean-up and maintenance of the structure, which has been unused for approximately two years, to bring it up to code.”
As stated from the rejection letter, “Your application for a Certificate of Use has been rejected because your location or business requires other County Ordinance or Land Development Code regulated approvals before we can complete our zoning inspection. This location is zoned Commercial Planned Development (CPD). This location is also guide by Resolution Z-07-025A. This resolution has a Schedule of Uses that permits Restaurants Group III. After speaking with staff of development services, I was instructed that I cannot approve this USE [a space that doesn’t require material modeling] application until the development matters are completed.”
With that, Michael T. Sullivan, Code Enforcement Officer, rejected Hurricane Harrys’ permit request until the Development Order has been corrected. The business must modify the development order before a Code Enforcement Officer can examine the permits. Once corrected, Code Enforcement can then continue with the approval or rejection of the new company’s permits. The applicant has 180 days (about six months) to resubmit an application that was found to be insufficient. In this case, the letter was dated Dec. 16, 2010. There is no limit on the number of re-submittals if it should be rejected again.
Upon numerous attempts, the owners of the establishment failed to be reached for comment. Stay tuned to the Beach Bulletin for further details as they develop.