Protect FMB rises from Seagate approval
Following the non-action by the Town of Fort Myers Beach Council to reconsider its approval for the Seagate condo development despite eleventh-hour pleas from residents at the last town council meeting, a new citizens group has formed and is weighing legal action against the town over the approval of the Seagate project.
Greg Scasny, who lost narrowly in a bid for a seat on the Town of Fort Myers Beach Council in November, is one of the members of the group “Protect FMB.” Scasny said the group was formed to combat what he views as the town council’s unwillingness to follow the town’s comprehensive plan.
“I see no indications that they will deny anything anymore,” Scasny said. He said the group was formed after the town council’s Seagate vote and is also concerned about future large-scale development projects that will require deviations from town code such as London Bay’s redevelopment of the Outrigger Resort into 11-story and 15-story hotel and condo buildings.
Scasny said the group is looking into potentially filing a lawsuit to challenge the town council’s approval of the Seagate condo project. The multi-building development, reaching 17 stories and more than 250 feet, would be the tallest condo project ever built in the town. The council granted the developers deviations from the town’s restrictions on new development to three stories on its bay side. The six-building project will be located on the site of the former Red Coconut RV Resort off Donora Boulevard.
“From my personal standpoint, Seagate is in my backyard,” Scasny said. Scasny is still rebuilding his home after Hurricane Ian. “The whole view of the back of my house will be staring at this massive building and what did we get for it? Absolutely zero.”
Opponents of the Seagate project have criticized the town council for the limited public benefits the developers offered to the town in exchange for the height deviation. Those benefits – a small public restroom, skywalk over Estero Boulevard and a small linear park or walking path – are not believed by opponents to be sufficient for the granting of the large height deviation. Seagate’s plans call for six buildings, with the tallest reaching 17 stories high. A total of 141 condo units are planned for the buildings.
At a town council meeting this past Wednesday, a group of residents urged the town council to take a vote of reconsideration. Under the town code, any one of the three town councilmembers who voted to support the development, could bring up the Seagate vote for a reconsideration. Vice Mayor Jim Atterholt, along with Councilmember John King and Karen Woodson voted to approve the project. Neither raised the issue for discussion this past week. Mayor Dan Allers and Councilmember Scott Safford had voted against the approval and couldn’t bring it up for reconsideration.
“The three that voted for it have zero negotiation skills,” Scasny said. “They had a great opportunity to unite the community. The island has been through a lot. They just don’t fight back for the residents who live here and it’s their job and it’s unfortunate.”
Protect FMB has started a website at www.ProtectFMB.org and a Facebook page.
One last chance
At Wednesday’s council meeting, opponents of the Seagate condos took one more shot at scaling back the project by unsuccessfully urging for the reconsideration vote.
Holding a copy of the town’s comprehensive plan that was approved in 1999 when he was vice mayor, former Fort Myers Beach Mayor Ray Murphy read the names of the council at the time as well as the Local Planning Agency members. “What they really should have done is added one more line here at the bottom ‘and the good people of the Town of Fort Myers Beach,'” Murphy said. “That’s who was involved in putting this plan together. And I will tell you how that happened. It didn’t fall out down from the sky. It wasn’t introduced to us by divine intervention.”
Murphy said the whole town was involved in putting together the plan more than 25 years ago, where planners asked the public what they wanted the town to look like. Murphy said the comprehensive plan was based on the public’s input. “It’s not just a plan. It’s the law. It’s ordained on Fort Myers Beach. This is the law on Fort Myers Beach. I ask you again to reconsider your vote. Do what is right. Follow the plan. It’s a good plan and you will find out when you are reading it, all the good portions of it.”
Murphy called on the town council to reconsider its Seagate project. “Discuss it again. Make the developer come back with a better plan. He is capable of it. You’re capable of arranging that.”
Jessica Titus, a longtime Realtor on the island, did not mince words in her opposition to Seagate’s condo buildings. “A toilet and a walkover is not what we want. This town deserves better and more,” Titus said.
“What we the people want is for this island to be what we intended the future to look like when we all came together and devised the comprehensive plan, an award-winning plan, and a plan that is very clear – crystal clear, regarding our main purpose in breaking away from Lee County,” Titus said. “If you actually negotiated a toilet and a walkover (skyway) to be what we the people wanted in exchange for our way of life, well your negotiating skills suck. For instance, when Mayor Dan Allers asked Seagate CEO Matt (Price) twice if he would like to voluntarily withdraw the project and return with another, did you notice that Seagate Matt didn’t say no? He didn’t say no twice. He said twice ‘not at this time.’ You should have taken his lead, voted against the project, have him return without prejudice.”
Titus said the “townspeople would be hailing your decision instead of wanting to remove you. We will not forget how you had the opportunity to save what is precious to us and did not. We will not forget, and we will not forgive you for doing this to us. This is not a threat. It’s just the way it is. You will be a councilmember to a town of people who will no longer even want to say hello to you.”
Titus said the town councilmembers would “go down in our town’s history as betraying us. Please save this town from that and I promise you that this town will survive quite nicely and will prosper and flourish even more without Seagate Matt’s towers. This is your golden opportunity to turn this around and prove to everyone that you really do care what we the people desire.”
Former Councilmember Bill Veach, who led the call for a reconsideration of the town council’s vote, said that the councilmembers who voted for the Seagate project were “not being accountable” to the town’s citizens.
“I was looking at the town charter the other day, it says explicitly that our elected officials are accountable to the citizens,” Veach said. “It doesn’t mention anything about being accountable to the bottom line of developers. That, as we say in HR (human resources) circles, is not in your job description.”
Veach criticized what he termed negotiations “behind the scenes” between the developers and individual councilmembers and staff.
The people of Shell Mound Boulevard, he said, were continually “downgraded” by a prioritization of getting the project off Estero Boulevard “and pushing it right next to neighbors” during negotiations over the plans. “Imagine if you had a single-family home and across the street from you there was going to be a 1,000 foot-wide, 250-foot tall wall of condos with decks looking into your yard. It just doesn’t fit the neighborhood at all,” he said.
Veach said “your taking a neighborhood and entombing them behind this giant wall.”
Atterholt was the only one of the three councilmembers who voted for the Seagate plans to respond to questions about his vote and decision not to reconsider when contacted by the Fort Myers Beach Observer. Atterholt said his position hadn’t changed.
“Rebuilding Fort Myers Beach after Hurricane Ian has involved some very difficult decisions resulting in imperfect solutions,” Atterholt said. “As thoughtful and passionate as the opposition to Seagate has been, there does not appear to be a consensus around an alternative solution.”
Fort Myers Beach Anchorage Advisory Committee Vice Chair Sam Lurie said the approvals given by the town council for Seagate would be used as precedent by London Bay for its proposal to build a condo and hotel project which also requires deviations for its height. Lurie expressed concern for the size of the view corridor allowed for Seagate and what London Bay might be able to be granted.
Lurie said “there is no consistency” to the town council’s decisions. Lurie said “breaches of the comprehensive plan” would lead to lawsuits.