COP issue related to beachfront licensed establishments
The Town of Fort Myers Beach is in the midst of addressing an issue of significant importance to our wonderful island community for today and the future. Property rights of owners and allowed usage are one of the responsibilities of a town. Within that area of consideration, one of the issues is service and/or consumption of alcoholic beverages on the beach sand. It is generating a lot of attention and discussion and that is a good thing. Open and thoughtful discussion about important issues facing the community is always to our collective benefit.
What is not good is that some (but certainly not all) who hold a stance opposing consideration of the subject seem to be bent on preventing that discussion through the use of misinformation and misdirection. The misinformation is leading some folks to the mistaken belief that there is a proposal to allow the consumption of alcoholic beverages everywhere on the beach and at any time. This is not even close to being true.
There are already locations along the beachfront where the businesses serve alcoholic beverages on portions of property they own that is sandy beach area. There are currently no Town based rules or regulations governing the activity at those locations other than the general rules that cover all other businesses. In comparison, there are other locations that do not have the ability to serve their patrons. Interestingly, there are only ten such individual business locations on the entire seven-mile stretch of the island.
You may ask how the current issue arose. It came about over two years ago when a former town manager ordered an expensive analysis for prohibiting sales of alcohol on the sandy beaches of businesses that are licensed by the state for Consumption on Premises. Based on that analysis, that Town Manager directed the Local Planning Association to develop a policy recommendation. This was all done without prior notification to or direction from the Town Council. After several months transpired, the Council was then introduced to the work product from the LPA. Council rejected the policy approach recommended by the LPA and chose a different policy approach to control and regulate alcoholic service/consumption on the beachfront through the Land Development code.
As many of you know, the LPA is an advisory board whose individual members are appointed by the Council and they work to develop recommendations on matters related to land use and land planning. The Council may accept, modify or reject any recommendation coming from the LPA because the Town Council is by law, the final decider on such matters.
Town Council directed the LPA to review the issue again and make recommendation on how beachfront COP licensed establishments can all be treated equally, fairly and consistently, providing for adequate regulations that do not exist today. These regulations would include, among other things, subjects like mandatory recycling, noise control, occupancy and amount of space that can be used.
With the Town Council’s policy direction now firmly established, it is clearly the responsibility of the LPA to accomplish that task. Their eventual work product will formulate the information that can be used for the required public hearings, thus allowing for all interested parties to participate, contribute and have the chance to make comment. It is the role and responsibility of town staff and attorneys to serve as experts in this process, while the LPA will review, comment and make recommendations for the Council’s final decision.
The recent circulation of misinformation about the issue is creating greater difficulty in allowing the process to work as intended. In order to be successful, the process must provide a proper and appropriate method to achieve a workable final solution for the benefit of the community at large.
Let’s all take a breath and allow the process to unfold, as it should.