GUEST OPINION: Local stewardship is best for Fort Myers Beach
Estero Island fits the definition of “critically eroded” only because the State wants to expand our beach as a recreation facility for tourism. The proposed CORPS project provides no solutions for the cause of the documented “mild to moderate erosion” that is occurring on two short stretches of our beach. The CORPS artificial beach program is a commercial, not an environmental project, and it is not the best stewardship of our beach ecosystem and town’s economic resources.
Despite its name, the project is not a restoration. It is an expansion of the beach 150 feet farther into the Gulf than it has ever previously existed. By creating a state-owned artificial beach front, the project expands commercial interests into residential areas for 4.6 miles, despite the protection mandated by our Town’s Comprehensive Plan.
The project’s highly touted commercial beach won’t be staying for long, with only 12 percent of all projects remaining after five years. Hundreds of billions of tax dollars have already washed away around the United States. Locally, the multi-million dollar beaches done in 2004 at Lovers Key and Bonita Beach are already gone. The Lee County Web site states zero sand remains, and tax increases for all properties (not just beach front) are now being discussed by the Town of Bonita Beach and the County Commissioners.
Our $13 million beach project is planned to fail within seven years, before it is even started! Is this fiscal responsibility? Mandated maintenance costs and the requirement for a second project when this one fails will bring increased taxes to all island residents. The Comprehensive Plan lists the additional annualized cost of the second project to be $540,000 per year.
Stated storm benefits are minimal. The County has stated that there is no protection in a major event. Dr. Dean, University of Florida, stated that projects claim storm benefits for political reasons. Studies show our island is low and will cover with water from time-totime. In Hurricane Charley the water covered the island from both the Gulf and the back bay. Dunes and a wider beach won’t help that.
FEMA requirements for a managed beach relate to replacement of project sand, not our homes. FEMA has a second category providing an emergency sand berm where no re-nourishment has been done. Our beach has rebuilt itself naturally through decades of hurricanes, but would qualify for that berm in an emergency if ever needed.
Claims of environmental benefit hide the facts. All of the near shore shells and animals will be buried and most will be killed, despite the Town’s Comprehensive Plan objectives for their protection. The damage is permanent, as admitted by Martin Seeling of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.
Claims of improved turtle nesting are misrepresentations based upon re-nourishment of beaches so eroded that they are devoid of remaining nesting space. That is not the case on Estero Island. In fact, the ridges and fluctuating unattractive states that a re-nourished beach creates can contribute to a decline in nesting according to a 7-year study at Jupiter Island, which concluded that the few remaining natural beaches in Florida should be protected.
Property rights are an issue large enough to now be studied by the US Supreme Court. The issues are great on Estero Island because federal funds will be used, which mandates public access wherever sand is placed. That line is very close to people’s homes and buildings and across their deeded property. Many communities have refused federal funds for that reason. The location of the mandatory vegetation close to structures on private property serves to further separate property owners from use of their own property, and the plan states the rules may change at any time.
It is the best interest of the Town to protect our ecosystem and economic autonomy by accepting the majority opinion of property owners to reject the CORPS plan and to pursue meaningful environmental stewardship of our beach through storm water management, community outreach, voluntary plantings, planned seasonal sand accretion practices and innovative sand building technologies where appropriate.
The Town should also demand that the CORPS Inland Navigation District meet its responsibility to properly manage Matanzas Pass. Despite claims that the dredging projects have helped our beach and hidden erosion, the fact is that the many mismanaged CORPS dredging projects have increased erosion as sand speeds back to fill the channel due to poor design and the changing/expanding shape of the County-owned Bowditch Point. That is their fiscal responsibility, not ours, and should never have been tied to a project spanning 4.6 miles of healthy natural beach.
We became a town to control our own destiny, and to protect and control our island’s natural resources. We should maintain local control and preserve our natural beach ecosystem for generations to come. For over twelve years, the property owners have continued to vote NO with their easements. They know that the residents and the Town of Fort Myers Beach can be better stewards of the island’s beach and ecosystem than the County Commissioners, State and CORPS would be with their perpetual artificial beach program.