After discussion and compromise with officials, Rick on the Roof gets to keep garage
After discussion and compromise, Rick on the Roof gets to keep garage. Fort Myers Beach man spent six days on roof protesting FEMA and FMB regulations
Andrew West, Fort Myers News-Press
Lee County announced Tuesday that it asked FEMA for an additional extension of time in order to respond to its information requests in order to preserve its 25% National Flood Insurance Plan (NFIP) discount.
The federal agency already granted the county a 30-day extension.
This is the latest in the county’s battles with FEMA, which declared Lee County’s –– and that of Bonita Springs, Estero, Fort Myers Beach and Cape Coral –– floodplain management insufficient to retain its Class 5 rating on the Community Rating System. A scale from Class 1 (high) to Class 10 (low), the rating system determines whether area residents are allowed a discount on the NFIP.
Previously, Lee County and the aforementioned municipalities had achieved a Class 5 on the scale, giving them a 25% discount on the FEMA-administered flood insurance. Recently, it was revised down to a 10, killing the discount entirely. Only Sanibel and the city of Fort Myers kept their Class 5 ratings.
Cape Coral announced Tuesday that it had formally requested an extension of FEMA’s 30-day deadline, as well.
“I do feel confident our staff can provide documentation to ensure we meet compliance and maintain our rating,” County Manager Dave Harner told the Lee Board of County Commissioners.
Why did Lee County lose its NFIP discount?
A major factor in the review was unpermitted construction activity, FEMA said.
Over the year and a half since Hurricane Ian, FEMA’s representatives conducted site visits across Lee County looking at how locally-adopted floodplain management ordinances were being enforced, and found it lacking, an email from the agency’s communication desk said.
The email also said the lowered class ratings and subsequent discount losses were due to “the large amount of unpermitted work, lack of documentation, and failure to properly monitor activity in special flood hazard areas, including substantial damage compliance.”
About 699,000 residents live in areas that will be impacted by the FEMA decision. There are 51,103 NFIP policies in force in unincorporated Lee County alone, which has a population of about 388,000.
For 17 years, Lee County has had a National Flood Insurance Program rating of Class 5, which gives resident policyholders a 25% discount. This saved Lee County residents roughly $17 million annually, a county press release estimated.
County pushes back on permit accusations
County commissioners took the opportunity at Tuesday’s board meeting to defend the county’s permitting and violations process. Commissioner Cecil Pendergrass called media reports of low permit numbers in the storm’s aftermath unfair.
“I personally know that (at one point) we had 30,000 permits (applications in process)” Pendergrass said. “It’s still America. People still have the choice to do the right thing or wrong thing. We don’t have the authority to go to people’s homes and see if they replaced the carpet, the wall, the electrical.”
In total, Harner said, 100,000 parcels were damaged in the storm, and the permit numbers roughly aligned with that.
According to the Lee County manager’s office, the county has already issued the following:
- 61,841 hurricane-related permits issued in fiscal year 2022-23
- 27,381 hurricane-related permits issued in fiscal year 2023-24
- 5,087 demolition permits issued in the special flood zone
- 2,151 violations issued to people working without permits
“The problem is when you’re devastated like Lee County is, you need so many people,” Harner said. He estimated it would have taken roughly 600 people to carry out in-person assessments of “substantial damage.”
The term “substantial damage” refers to a federal definition of homes located in a special flood hazard zone serviced by the National Flood Insurance Program that are so damaged it will cost more than 50% of their value to restore them to their pre-storm state .
Since the county didn’t have that many home inspectors, Harner said, they chose to do a “windshield assessment,” or an assessment of the property when an owner applies for a permit. I have cited mechanisms like code enforcement violations as the main way of keeping homeowners compliant with permitting processes.
Pendergrass agreed.
“The Lee County Sheriffs Office doesn’t allow people to run red lights but they do,” Pendergrass said. “People will get caught, sooner or later.”
Kate Cimini is the Florida Investigative Reporter for the USA TODAY-Florida Network, based at The News-Press and The Naples Daily News. Contact her at 239-207-9369 or [email protected].
