close

LPA discusses comp plan issues with Council

3 min read

The Town “Bible” received a timely initial overview between island policy makers and their top advisory board last week.

The Fort Myers Beach Town Council held a joint session with the Beach Local Planning Agency to go over the LPA’s review of the Town Comprehensive Plan, a 15-chapter document that lists formal goals, objectives, and policies selected by the town and those involved in future envisioning plans.

The LPA had been tasked to review the comp plan one chapter at a time. The board then needs to develop a strategy prior to considering proposed changes to the document.

“The first step is generally to look at your existing plan and see what progress has been made towards those goals. That is the evaluation part of it,” said Town attorney Derek Rooney.

A Town Evaluation and Appraisal Report has to be completed by August 2016. EAR is known as an assessment of a town or city’s current Comprehensive Land Use Plan, including a thorough analysis of the Plan’s elements, goals, objectives and policies.

“It seems timely that this review begins in relation to that,” said Mayor Anita Cereceda. “I think it would be great to look at things that have happened in recent years, not just last year, that are relative to the Comp Plan.

“A lot of times I have been talking about looking at what we did when we adopted that plan and what we are doing now. Is it in sync or is it not in sync? A think the idea of a chapter at a time is great.”

Rooney cautioned that Town staff should bring back a report on goals, objectives and policies first. The EAR does not amend the Plan. It offers recommended changes that could be taken up in the future as “EAR-based” amendments.

“The EAR report is basically just a health check. These are the things that we identified years ago and (now check) where we are with them,” he said. “Once that report is ready, we will send that off to the state. The state will say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ and it will come back. We then will start to develop an EAR amendment, which would be the amendment that would change the Comprehensive Plan.”

According to the officials, after LPA and Council discuss and make proposed changes to its comp plan, a public forum needs to be held prior to adoption of any amendments.

The previous EAR was adopted in 2009. LPA Vice Chair Joanne Shamp reviewed that document that featured premiere major planning issues at the time, including coastal hazard, Estero Boulevard and Times Square area.

According to Town records, the effort to create the Comp Plan was “to bring into focus the long-range goals for the town.” The plan “establishes formal policies for the town government and lays the foundation for a new Land Development Code to guide further development and redevelopment.”

Cerceda would like the Plan to capture the essence that Fort Myers Beach is a park.

“Fort Myers Beach defines itself as a park,” she said. “We are not just a beach, we are a park. Maybe that theme can be validated.”

The original Fort Myers Beach Comprehensive Plan was adopted and effective Jan. 1, 1999. Go to www.fortmyersbeachfl.gov and click on “Doing Business” to view the entire Town Comprehensive Plan.