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Fort Myers advisory committee hears staff outline comprehensive plan rewrite
Summary
City staff described the first comprehensive plan rewrite since 2010, citing public engagement results, housing and infrastructure data, and proposed policy tools; the advisory committee asked for readable maps, a concise report for City Council, and suggested adding arts and cultural priorities to the plan.
Tony Palermo, the city's assistant director of community development, told the Fort Myers Economic Development Advisory Committee that the city is undertaking its first comprehensive plan rewrite since 2010 and described it as the long-range policy document that will guide future land use, infrastructure and growth.
"The comprehensive plan is kind of is a big deal," Palermo said, explaining the document sets future land-use categories, density limits, and infrastructure priorities and must align with state review. He said the city held community workshops and gathered nearly 500 survey responses plus 166 additional responses targeted at residents 40 and under.
Palermo summarized the public input and technical data that are shaping the rewrite: roughly 70% of survey respondents rated Fort Myers' quality of life good or excellent, and common concerns were housing affordability, traffic, aging infrastructure and flooding along the Caloosahatchee River. He reported the city's housing inventory includes about 24,000 occupied single-family units, more than 30,000 multifamily units and roughly 500 mobile homes; staff said nearly 7,000 units are in the permitting pipeline and more than 4,000 are under construction.
Palermo identified policy levers the city can use, including changes to the land development code such as lowering minimum unit sizes (Palermo cited examples of workforce-oriented footprints around 850 square feet), incentives to spur affordable development, complete-streets and mobility-fee options in place of traditional impact fees, and updated resiliency elements addressing stormwater and coastal high-hazard concerns.
Committee members pressed staff for implementation detail and timing. "We can start working on items like that right away," Palermo said of LDR changes, while noting the full comprehensive-plan process will depend on how quickly the planning board completes its review and on state agency review following City Council action. Staff said the planning board will discuss the more difficult elements at an August meeting, after which elements will move to council for permission to advertise public hearings.
Board members asked for clearer, legible comp-plan maps and for better coordination among the city's many plans (including the downtown and Midtown studies and the economic-development master plan). Jerry Miller, a committee member, urged the group to prepare a concise written report of priorities the committee could present to City Council at a workshop or in written form.
"If you look at our mission statement ... it specifically says you will give updates to the city council," Miller said, pressing for a September or October update. City staff said they can prepare written materials and try to schedule a workshop slot, and members agreed to assemble a short list of the committee's top priorities for council consideration.
Other items discussed that staff said would be reflected in the plan or supporting work included: whether to rezone parcels to allow more light industrial uses where appropriate; whether to continue allowing fee-in-lieu sidewalk policies (staff said transportation policies can be strengthened in the plan); and whether to formally include arts, culture and entertainment as explicit plan priorities (members recommended adding those topics to the goals and priorities section).
The committee recorded one formal action early in the meeting: members moved, seconded and approved the minutes of the June 4 meeting; the transcript records multiple "Aye" responses but does not show a full roll-call tally.
Next steps: staff said consultant-supported work will include stakeholder interviews, a SWOT analysis and a draft plan (staff cited an example consultant estimate of about $47,000). The planning board will review elements in August, after which the planning-board recommendations will go to City Council and then be transmitted to state agencies for formal review. Staff encouraged committee input before the Council workshop and promised to provide readable maps, timelines and a short list of committee priorities for Council consideration.
