Lee County Commissioners approved amending the Lee Plan in a 4-1 vote Dec. 6, marking the end of a near year-long discussion in which commissioners moved forward with changes to the county’s development plan for Captiva Island.
Despite many Captiva residents and their Sanibel neighbor voicing opposition, the county boiled down the amendment changes a simple strike-through of enforcing “one- and two-story building heights” in Goal 23 of the Captiva Community Plan, as well as keeping with building height regulations established March 23, 2018, in Policy 23.2.3.
Commissioner Brian Hamman pointed out that the rest of the language in the plan remains intact, including enforcing development standards that maintain the historic low-density residential development pattern of Captiva.
According to county staff, the changes to Goal 23 and Policy 23.2.3 remove requirements that restrict the ability to redevelop or rebuild structures in a way that reduces potential flooding threats by accommodating required minimum flood elevations.
However, island residents in attendance disagreed. Sanibel resident and Co-chair of SanCap Resilience Bob Moore said the amendments will increase vulnerability to storm damage, traffic congestion, stress on critical infrastructure and reduce evacuation safety. Additionally, he said it will decrease water quality and health of the natural systems that protect island residents from storms and flooding.
“Your constituents are telling you clearly that the proposed changes will not serve the resilience goals you’ve set,” Moore said. “They do not support the needs and wishes of the community. They’re not consistent with the Sanibel plan or the Captiva Community Plan and they’re not desired by anyone but the developer.”
Sanibel residents Lisa Riordan looked at the bigger picture.
“The action that you take today, coupled with the actions taken at previous meetings would create two very different sets of rules for buildings on Captiva,” said Riordan, president of the Captiva Civic Association Foundation Board of Governors. “By permitting the increased height rates of the of the buildings on South Seas [resort], you provide the basis for increased density. No one sitting here today believes that they would build a higher and taller hotel if they weren’t putting more units in it than stand there today.”
While Deputy County Attorney Michael Jacob said the amendments were not about South Seas, the only speakers at the meeting who voiced support of the amendments were owners, employees and representatives of the resort.
South Seas General Manager Shawn Farrell said commissioners’ support of the amendment will help his team return back to work. The resort has 79 associates working again after the termination of 400 associates after Hurricane Ian.
Everton Maxwell has worked at South Seas for more than 12 years and returned to work a week ago. He said the success of South Seas would mean the success of restaurants and business on the rest of the island. “If South Seas doesn’t get going, I can guarantee you a lot of the businesses are going to suffer there,” he said.
Sanibel Mayor Richard Johnson voiced his support for Captiva residents who opposed the changes while supporting the recovery of South Seas.
“We want the developer to be successful,” Johnson said. “We want the crown jewels of Lee County to be resilient. We want the developer to be successful with that, but we want it to be done within the rules and regulations that we’ve all been playing by for many years.”
Although commissioners moved forward with amendments to the plan, concerns about the delicate nature and history of the county’s barrier islands extend beyond just island residents. A proposed bill to create the Captiva Island Conservation Area sponsored by state Rep. Adam Botana was discussed at a Nov. 30 Lee County Legislative Delegation meeting.
The proposed legislation states that the island has limited infrastructure, hurricane evacuation routes, water resources, wastewater systems and environmental resources, and conservation of the island is in the best interest of Captiva Island property owners and the citizens of Lee County.
It proposes prohibition of the right to build back nonconforming buildings damaged by natural disaster in compliance with updated federal flood elevations without a reduction in use, density, intensity, size or square footage of the damaged buildings.
An overwhelming majority of speakers at the delegation meeting were in support of seeing the referendum on a future ballot, while developers of South Seas were not.
Commissioner Kevin Ruane, a former Sanibel mayor who was the lone nay vote, cited many conflicting statements as reasoning for his opposition.
“The concern I have is I’ve heard enough conflicting statements in here and I hoped for resiliency and not density,” he said. “I wish that South Seas has the greatest success possible, but in the same token, uncertainty has created where we are today, and the uncertainty has created a lot of anxiety. I tried and I thank this board for allowing us to have expanded deliberations and conversations, but I still think we’re not there and I will not be supporting this.”