Developments should meet town parking requirements
Looking around Fort Myers Beach, the town has come a long way since Hurricane Ian left the island looking almost barren while taking 16 lives nearly three years ago.
The island has bounced back quicker than some expected if not as quickly as some would like. Many restaurants and businesses have reopened or are putting in serious investments into rebuilding. Homes are going up, though slower than one would hope. According to the town’s attorney, there are approximately 155 temporary trailers in the town. A number of condo buildings have reopened in the past year, though others still haven’t.
The continued wait for the Fort Myers Beach Pier to be rebuilt by Lee County is one big missing piece of the turnaround. The empty lots on more than half of Times Square – the town’s tourist destination – is another. On the southern end, the demolished Outrigger and Wyndham hotel properties are a reminder of what was lost.
We want to see Fort Myers Beach rebuilt as quickly and responsibly as possible.
Yet some of the new plans have divided the community who don’t feel the planning has been responsible. The quick approvals for the Seagate Development Group’s 17-story condo building (14 stories above what code allows) at the former Red Coconut RV Resort led to the formation of Protect FMB and a lawsuit against the town council. A proposed hotel at Times Square was shot down by the town council.
This month, the town council voted to move the proposed 263-room Arches Bayfront hotel to a second hearing despite a recommendation of denial from the town’s planning staff and concerns from Fort Myers Beach Mayor Dan Allers about drainage at the Moss Marina site.
The developers, the Freeland family who own Moss Marina near the Old San Carlos Boulevard business district and near a residential neighborhood, are seeking a 50% reduction in parking from the town’s Land Development Code for the hotel and the commercial uses. Five new buildings have been proposed for the marina property under plans submitted by The Neighborhood Company, a planning and design firm.
The town’s Land Development Code requires 586 parking spaces for the hotel, retail and marina uses. The hotel alone requires 329 parking spaces under town code. Yet the applicants are requesting to have just 293 spaces for the entire redevelopment. With five buildings of commercial uses, including a hotel, there wouldn’t appear to be enough parking for all the hotel guests and workers if the hotel and retails spaces were full.
Town planner Judith Frankel said at a town council meeting this month that the zoning change is “not clearly in the public interest.” Frankel said the project doesn’t necessarily provide a benefit to the town. “It will result in traffic and noise impacts to nearby residential uses through the elimination of the buffer between the intense commercial district and the neighborhood which could increase conflict.”
In a town where traffic has long been at the top of the list of concerns from residents and visitors, not having enough parking on site will likely lead to Arches Bayfront visitors having to drive around town to find parking and contributing further to the traffic issues. If Arches Bayfront is successful and people want to stay at the hotel and visit the shops, restaurant and possible bar, there should be enough parking to accommodate them.
Unfortunately, we are concerned that a theory has taken hold among some on the council that if there is not enough parking, people will get the idea and just not drive onto the island. We have seen this theory advanced in previous projects the council has approved over the past year that did not have enough parking on site and were granted deviations from parking requirements. This theory has some flaws. The town is visited by hundreds of thousands of people every year and while all of those people may one day get the idea there isn’t enough parking at Arches Bayfront, the initial learning curve could be painful.
The traffic in this area was such an immediate concern of the town council just one month ago when it essentially adopted an emergency contract without any bid process to hire a firm to handle pedestrian crossings and direct vehicle traffic just up the street at the intersection of Old San Carlos Boulevard and Estero Boulevard for the season.
The idea that many people will start riding bikes to Fort Myers Beach or hop on boats in such a way that traffic won’t get worse without enough parking, is wishful thinking. While the Arches Bayfront plans seek to promote the use of ferries, or water taxis, even if they are used more heavily, it is unlikely to offset the increased traffic.
Frankel’s other concern about the impact of Arches Bayfront to neighbors should also lead to more discussion from the town council. There is no denying that the residential neighborhood directly behind Moss Marina would see face major impacts from this development with an 81-feet high building towering over their backyards and a proposed bar with a balcony hovering over them.
The concerns from Allers about the drainage plan are warranted in an area with a long, documented history of flooding around a property essentially right on the water in a town with a recent history of hurricanes. Allers said he wouldn’t approve the plans without seeing drainage plans.
The Freeland family, represented by The Neighborhood Company, said they don’t expect to begin building out the hotel for a few years. Patrick Vanasse, a planning consultant with The Neighborhood Company, said they would work on details of the drainage plan at some point with town staff though they didn’t have drainage plans put together.
If the Arches Bayfront developers don’t plan to build for a few years and have said their plans will depend on the market, financing and their partners, why should the town be in a rush to grant them the eight deviations from the
Land Development Code they are seeking without appropriate protections for neighbors and the appropriate parking? The approvals given by the town council and the impacts to the neighbors and traffic will last forever and nobody knows who will own the property in the future.
The Neighborhood Company is also representing the Lighthouse Resort in their expansion plans. Those plans were also approved to go to a second reading by the town council. The owners are seeking a 58% reduction from the town’s parking requirements on a property where parking is already limited for visitors not staying at the hotel. The hotel is proposing 99 parking spaces for their plans to expand from 75 units to 130 units along with a new building. The town’s planning staff is recommending the hotel be required to have 130 parking spaces, though the town council did not discuss this issue when approving the project for a second hearing.
The owners of the Lighthouse Resort don’t intend to begin their expansion plans for at least three years.
So the question is what is the rush for the town council to be approving redevelopment and expansion plans from developers who say they are years away from doing any of the work now? There should be good, responsible planning and enough parking to accommodate these expansions. We all want businesses downtown to succeed and there can only be success if cars can get on the island.
Fort Myers Beach Observer Editorial