Town adds senior planner to CDD staff
Town of Fort Myers Beach Manager Don Stilwell announced a new addition to the community development department at the Fort Myers Beach Town Council meeting on Monday morning.
Virginia native E. Megan Will has joined the Town staff as a senior planner. Will takes over for Josh Overmyer who left the Town last month to accept a senior manager analyst of flood plains coastal position with the state of Florida.
Will, who has Bachelor of Arts degree in Historic Preservation from the Mary Washington College in Fredericksburg, Va. and a Master’s degree in City and Regional Planning from Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), has many years of experience in planning and consulting prior to her relocation to Southwest Florida 18 months ago. She has also worked in national trust for historic preservation in Washington D.C.
“I’m very excited to be part of the team here,” she told Council. “The opportunity to plan for an island came up. It is not one you find often in your career, so I jumped at it.”
Will is part of an overhaul at the CDD level. Back in November 2014, Stilwell hired former long-time Lee County Principal Planner Matt Noble on a part-time basis to strengthen the department, primarily in zoning. Noble, who has since been hired full time by accepting the principal planner position, holds a Master’s degree in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Akron. He belongs to the American Planning Association, American Institute of Certified Planners and Florida Planning & Zoning Association.
“Megan and Matt are both seasoned professionals,” said Stilwell. “Megan worked in the private sector with city and counties. They will complement one another. The sum of the two will be greater than one plus one.”
The two planners join former Permit Coordinator Belinda Smith, who took on the role of development services manager prior to Noble’s hire. The department also involves Code Enforcement Officers Molly Jacobs and David Crook, Permit Coordinator Ayita “Max” Williams and long-time Building Safety Services Coordinator Ken Miller, who handles both permits and inspections.
The community development department “administers and enforces zoning and land development regulations, building regulations, coastal and flood regulations and local environmental standards” for promotion of present and future needs, while recognizing and promoting real property rights, according to the Town website.
The Town department has seen a recent record increase in permit activity.
“In my mind, if there is one area of the Town that should be the most critical, important department for the Town of Fort Myers Beach, it is community development,” Cereceda said on Nov. 3. “I would be thrilled if our community development department has the personnel resources they need.”