Town Council rejects rezoning for Estero Island Beach Club
The Town of Fort Myers Beach Council voted Monday 4-1 to reject a rezoning for the Estero Island Beach Club which would allow an ordinance to move to a second hearing in order to allow the board to move forward with rebuilding the property after damage from Hurricane Ian.
The vote denied the applicants for the 75-unit development on from moving forward to a second reading for the redevelopment of their Estero Boulevard development. The development, which includes timeshares, has approximately 3,800 owners according to representatives.
Mayor Dan Allers, Vice Mayor Jim Atterholt, Councilmember Scott Safford and Councilmember John King voted to reject the proposed rezoning. Councilmember Karen Woodson voted against the council’s decision to reject the ordinance.
Allers said he wasn’t sure if the “public benefit” offered properly balanced the request to build higher than the town’s zoning code allows by building up to 10 stories.
“I don’t think the LPA had all the information they had to make the decision we made,” Allers said.
Allers said he thinks the Fort Myers Beach Local Planning Agency may want to review the plans again.
Allers said he disagreed with town staff’s analysis of the application which recommended approval of the deviations required.
“I think something could be designed that is much better,” Allers said. “Things could be different on this project.”
Allers asked MK Architecture President Michael Sheeley if the plans could be changed to take out the view corridor and meet the town’s existing zoning code. The current plans would exceed the town’s height limit under its code without a deviation.
Woodson said the Local Planning Agency asked for the view corridor. “I’m perplexed as to what was wrong with the original plan that didn’t have a view corridor.”
According to the applicants, the original plans had a partial view corridor.
“I’m kind of perplexed if we asked for this and you gave it to us why are we going back and forth on this because this is what we asked for?” Woodson said she didn’t expect the applicants to do a three-story or four-story building when they were not asked to.