LPA to tackle Comp Plan evaluation and appraisal
The Local Planning Agency is set to begin a lengthy process that will review a Town of Fort Myers Beach plan that was adopted in early January 1999 and amended in mid-August 2009.
LPA officials have been tasked to create an Evaluation and Appraisal Report 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.
Each month, LPA officials will be discussing each element of the Comp Plan. At the March 5 meeting, the most previous E.A.R. will be reviewed. Afterwards, LPA officials will make recommendations towards “EAR-based” amendments that will make changes to the Comp Plan. The project, as a whole, could take several years.
Town Principal Planner Matt Noble believes the process will be a two-stage task.
“The first stage that we are going to embark upon is to evaluate the current plan and identify the changes we all believe should be made to the Plan. Then following that process, we enter into the amendment cycle to make those changes to the Plan,” he said. “I envision having several work sessions where we’re going to ask you to participate in some exercises. It’s your opportunity to put your input early on.”
Noble suggested a neutral place such as the Beach Library to get public input in the process. Once the LPA review is completed, the Beach Council will examine any changes offered.
LPA Vice Chair Joanne Shamp would like to review a chapter per month to begin. Noble said he plans on having a schedule at the March meeting.
“We’ll set the schedule on which each element will come in front of you to have that discussion,” he said. “I think it’s helpful and healthy to set the schedule and then we have a workshop as to what are the perceived global issues that people can identify before we go element by element by element.”
Current developments of land uses will have an effect during the review.
“We face some very critical issues downtown and with other major new developments on Old San Carlos (Boulevard) too,” said LPA Chair Hank Zuba.
In late January, the Fort Myers Beach Town Council held a joint session with the Beach Local Planning Agency to go over the LPA’s expected review of the Town Comprehensive Plan.
“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 then.
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.
“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,” Rooney said in January. “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 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.”
Go to www.fortmyersbeachfl.gov and click on “Doing Business” to view the entire Town Comprehensive Plan.
Boulevard project work updated
The LPA received a summary report about the upcoming Estero Boulevard Improvements Project. Kaye Molnar of Cella Molnar & Associates, Inc., the public information officer for the project, and Lee County Department of Transportation’s Rob Phelan, the project manager, provided the update on the first segment of the long-term project, set to begin at Crescent Street and go to approximately Lover’s Lane after Easter.
Molnar began by informing that Chris-Tel Construction is the project’s construction management at risk. That company will hire a contractor in the near future.
Phelan stated FPL poles are still going to be installed on the beachside of the boulevard but will be larger, taller poles and relocated to the right-of-way line to make way for sidewalk installations. Coordination efforts between utility companies will be needed.
There have been questions as to why the project couldn’t be a nighttime task. Construction noise was cited as the main reason as to why the project will occur mostly during daytime hours. Water shutoffs should occur during the early morning hours (past midnight), however, so that restaurants and other businesses can function properly and residents would not be impacted as much.
Once FPL is ready to install new poles, that work may occur at night, said Phelan, because both lanes of the road will be needed for that type of work.
Empty conduit is expected to be laid out for future, improved street lighting if needed.
Both officials said there has not been much negative response to the county’s easement control. In past road projects, contractors have been known to be accommodating when removing property features, such as brick pavers.
Trolley stops are being planned during the first segment. During certain spots, chicanes (artificial features creating extra turns in a road) will create space for the stops. To make room for the chicanes, the center turn lane will be eliminated in those areas.
The Town Streetscape Master Plan includes six segments: the completed North End,, Civic Complex, Quiet Center, High Rise Resort and South End.
This first segment -Core Area- is the initial stage of a long-term program that will replace or relocate underground utilities, build a new roadway and provide bicycle and pedestrian facilities along the entire length of Estero Boulevard.
The first segment’s 50-foot limited ROW has been planned to include 10-foot travel lanes in each direction and marked with bicycle “sharrows” for shared use by bicyclists and motorists, an 11-foot center turn lane and 9-foot wide sidewalks on both sides of the road.
The road project is not designed to alleviate traffic volume or reroute motorists to rid the traffic congestion problem that has been a longtime scar on Fort Myers Beach during high-capacity tourism months. The idea is to make the Beach a safer place for those who would rather walk, bike or take a trolley and encourage others to do so to take some vehicles off the road with a reconstructed road.
Commitee member honored
LPA Vice Chair Joanne Shamp was presented with a resolution for her extended services on the Town’s top advisory board. She was honored for her many years on the committee, serving as a chair, vice chair, chair of the Historic Preservation Board and her thorough knowledge and appreciation of the Comprehensive Plan.