Council mediates disputes between businesses, residents
Beach businesses are growing, but residents who live nearby are dealing with the unintended consequences of noise and garbage.
At least week’s Fort Myers Beach Town Council meeting, a first hearing was held for an addition to the noise ordinance that could help some residents sleep at night.
Doris Grant lives on Crescent Street.
She and her husband go to bed early, only to be awakend, they say, by loud music from across the street.
“We have called the sheriff at least 25 times, and of course they respond, but they never have a decibel reader with them,” she told Council during public comment.
The current ordinance requires a decibel reading to administer a violation.
Originally, this was put into place to keep noise laws consistent across Lee County, according to Town Manager Roger Hernstadt.
“(It was) so that they didn’t have officers responding in one area looking at a different code than another area,” he said.
But in the event that an officer doesn’t respond with a decibel reader, council is looking at an addition to the ordinance that could still allow the noise to be measured.
“If noise is audible 1000 feet from the property line of the originator, that would be a violation,” said Hernstadt.
Grant told council she was pleased with this addition, but Councilmember Anita Cereceda had concerns.
“This to me is so subjective,” she said.
“There are some people who are unhappy with where they happen to live and the imposition of how the neighborhood has changed. This can become a tool used against individuals and businesses,” she said.
Mayor Tracey Gore disagreed.
“I think this gives the citizens of the town a tool of their own to be protected,” she said.
“We’ve had that house for 50 years, it’s been in the family. Everything built around us,” said Grant.
Council requested input from the Lee County Sheriff’s Office and scheduled a second hearing of the ordinance for the next regular town council meeting on March 4.
Another discussion at the meeting centered around a similar dispute.
Nervous Nellie’s applied for a permit that would waive the conditions of the noise ordinance and authorize consumption of alcohol in Bayside Park, which is town property, for its annual St. Patrick’s Day event.
Regardless of the proposed changes to the noise ordinance, businesses can apply for these special permits if they know an event will be loud and run late.
Applying for an exception to the noise ordinance requires prior written notification to all property owners within 500 feet of the business’s property line.
But noise wasn’t the problem for Manager Tyler Lemmer.
Councilmember Bruce Butcher questioned him about complaints from neighbors regarding garbage.
“We’re pretty responsible when it comes to moving garbage from our back door over to the Dumpster area. The particular problem is that we have a neighbor that has the tendency to use you as a weapon against us,” he told the council.
A neighbor has been sending the town manager and council members photos of garbage left behind the restaurant overnight.
Lemmer said they installed a gate around their backdoor to block view of the garbage to passersby, but it’s not high enough to block the view from the condos across the street.
“The Dumpster is located in the back of the parking lot next door over at the condos, so we have to physically haul all of our garbage a couple hundred yards,” he told council.
The employee who closes the restaurant at night doesn’t run the last bag of garbage out to the Dumpster for security reasons, but Lemmer told council he would be willing to start doing it now as a compromise for their neighbors.
Council approved his permit unanimously.
In Other Business:
– March 2019 was proclaimed Problem Gambling Awareness Month at the request of the Florida Council on Compulsive Gambling.
– Council set a second hearing for changes to the towing ordinance, which would update the rates to reflect Lee County’s current rate structure
– Hernstadt informed the public that the total grant amount the town has received for the stormwater project in the last two years exceeds $5 million.
– Council unanimously nominated Tom Babcock for the town’s 2019 Citizen of Distinction Award for his work on the island’s overflight issues