Alcohol on beach expansion moves to Council
Regulation for alcohol on Fort Myers Beach moved one step closer to a final legislative expansion decision yesterday.
During a public hearing on Tuesday, Jan. 10, the Town’s Local Planning Agency approved an ordinance for regulating Consumption on Premises for extended service from a licensed premise into the Environmentally Critical zoning district. The motion passed by a 4-2 count with members Joanne Shamp and John Kakatsch dissenting.
The ordinance, which was pre-approved by Town staff, will be sent to the five members of Town Council for review and consideration for either a workshop or public hearing in the upcoming weeks.
Before the motion passed, the only change to the proposed conditions of the draft ordinance dealt with time extension after sunset.
The approved ordinance comes one month after LPA members were asked to review recommended procedures and conditions in both the downtown region and outside the boundaries of the downtown region of Fort Myers Beach in an effort to create a regulatory framework for guidance. This duty comes after the Town’s Community Development Department presented the Local Planning Agency with a report in October.
“The ordinance you see today is really reflected on staff’s recommended position on this,” said Community Development Director Walter Fluegel. He read some sections from the Town’s Land Development Code that establishes permitted uses and definitions from chapters of the LDC before reviewing the ordinance’s seven standard conditions of approval.
One of the debatable conditions focused on serving alcohol only in biodegradable or compostable plastic cups that bears the name of the establishment.
“This is one of the most important concepts to staff. It provides a substantial protection to the eco-system in (eliminating) glass and aluminum from the beach and having the establishment’s name on the plastic cup really provides a means of limiting the migration of alcohol and to assist us, the Sheriff’s Office and the state division in Alcohol, Beverage and Tobacco in the enforcement of this ordinance,” said Fluegel.
Public comment featured business owners agreeing the whole concept of the ordinance was beneficial for uniformity within the commercial downtown district, but also showed worry about liability issues with having their establishment’s name on the cups. Beach Chamber President John Albion echoed those sentiments.
“If someone takes cups with the name of (the establishment) and, God forbid, went to three other bars on the island to get painfully drunk and into a car accident, I wonder how the increased liability could affect insurance policies when the cups are found,” he said.
An aforementioned time restriction for hours of service and consumption after the setting sun was another argumentative condition. Town staff originally had language stating 30 minutes after sunset, but after much public comment and LPA deliberation, extended the time to one hour after sunset.
The defined area of the COP expansion for licensed premises extends seaward into the EC zoning district but is limited to no more than 33 percent of the land area between the landward EC zoning district boundary and the mean high water lines in most cases.
As a measure of establishing dominion and control and aiding in enforcement, rope and post requirements extending along the establishment’s property line were also among the provisions approved. Some public speakers and LPA members thought such a measure creates a more cluttered landscape and a nighttime hazard.
“Ropes and posts interfere with my vision. I love our gorgeous, long beach with beautiful sand,” said LPA member Jane Plummer.
“We believe people will trip over the ropes in the dark, and that it will be a liability issue,” said Leslie Donovan of Gulfshore Grill & The Cottage.
Fluegel stated there is a need for monitoring reasons.
“The rope and post (measure) seems to make everyone’s job the easiest. You can look at it and know right where that person should or should not be with that cup in their hands,” he said. “I see it as an improvement upon current circumstances where we had no rules.”
Although he approved the ordinance, LPA member Al Durrett was leery about some of its provisions.
“I think we are trying to create rules here that are not going to be enforceable,” he said.
Before the motion was passed, LPA Chair Joanne Shamp, who stated she has been opposed to COP expansion for a long time and that the LPA has resisted it in the past, wanted to point out that the ordinance is not about regulating the few existing businesses that were out of compliance.
“This ordinance is about expanding alcohol consumption in an unprecedented fashion throughout the length of the island. This is a far more significant precedent than anything that has ever come before,” she said.
The beachfront resident stated the “LPA is charged with protecting the safety and welfare and making recommendations to the Council and include preserving the few remaining natural resources of the island.” She also mentioned the Town’s Comprehensive Plan states that residential areas should be protected from commercial intrusion.
“I think that if we allow administrative approval of expansion of alcohol, we have circumvented in many ways the protection and the rights of residences and adjoining property owners in what happens,” she said. “We now have an ordinance that greatly expands businesses instead. What we send forward to Council should have an option where there is not an expansion and just regulation of existing businesses.”