Town to begin work on rental program
A discussion on the rental program on Estero Island began a busy work session for the Fort Myers Beach Town Council monday morning. The agenda item was the first of seven to be hashed over for the five council members and Town Manager Terry Stewart,
Town staff was directed to begin working on a business case analysis for the program, while Vice Mayor Bob Raymond will act as the point man on behalf of the council. The matter is expected to be completed and added to the administrative agenda at the Dec. 6 council meeting at 9 a.m.
Stewart said he will be doing the majority of the work but may be aided by a volunteer intern who is expected to begin work for the town during the first week of November.
“One of the things that I want to focus on in doing this business case assessment is that we can at least break even on it,” said Stewart. “What I’m hearing is that you don’t want the cost coming out of ad valorem taxes, and that this service should be full-cost recovery at the very least.
“I don’t see this as an onerous undertaking. I don’t believe we need an ad-hoc committee to do this type of work.”
The discussion began with Raymond giving a few points and facts about the program. He pointed out there are roughly 6,525 homes on the island, while only 2,400 condominiums of that number are rented on a seasonal basis (six months or less).
“When you sign up for a license, you would have an inspection. Part of that fee you pay for your license, pays for that inspection. There is no tax money that pays for the code officers to go check out your house,” said Raymond.
The vice mayor revealed licensing fees from Bonita to Marathon for his study. He proposes $150 a year for the Beach.
“It’s anywhere from $100 to $350 a year,” Raymond said. “Fifty dollars out of that would pay for the inspections and that type of thing. There is also some costs in running it. But, It should also bring in a profit for the town. I think that has to be a part of it.”
Mayor Larry Kiker was the first to bring up the business case analysis.
“With the business case analysis, you can do a concrete introduction of what it is you are trying to do,” he said. “You figure out what those numbers are, and you can do two or three analysis with best case and worst case to see the difference. Then, you put in the pros and cons of it and do a risk analysis and figure out what the expected results are, how they will be measured, how much they will cost to implement, how much you’re going to make and start scaling it down from there.”
The process may lead to an ad-hoc study committee or, perhaps, be led to another appropriate avenue, such as being directed to the Local Planning Agency.
“I’ve talked to almost every rental company on the island, and there is not one of them that doesn’t agree with it,” said Raymond. “