Fort Myers Beach holds hybrid open house to shape island-wide recovery and resilience plan

Erica Harris, a resilience specialist and project manager with AECOM, told a hybrid public open house that the town of Fort Myers Beach is developing an island-wide recovery and resilience plan funded through federal post–Hurricane Ian recovery dollars. "We're working with the town right now to develop a recovery and resilience plan, which is an island‑wide effort focused on helping guide ongoing recovery and identifying priorities for the town's future with respect to resilience," Harris said.

The project will review previous planning work — Harris said the team has reviewed more than 80 strategies from earlier plans — and organize those ideas into a phased implementation roadmap that prioritizes near‑term needs, five‑to‑10‑year investments and longer‑term adaptation actions. "Phase one" will target near‑term actions and recovery coordination; "Phase two" will focus on larger infrastructure and community investments; and "Phase three" will address longer‑term resilience and adaptation needs, she said.

Harris said the effort also includes a study to evaluate a potential Community Redevelopment Area, which "is going to include portions of the downtown commercial district." The project team has been meeting with town leadership, business and property owners, community organizations and service workers and opened the meeting to the wider public to gather broader community input.

Participants were invited to visit five in‑room stations covering beach and natural systems, transportation and parking, community destinations and economic vitality, prioritization/phasing, and "big ideas" outside the other categories. The team displayed a QR code and linked the project survey from the town homepage for residents who cannot stay or who want to provide additional feedback online.

Harris said the team will return in the fall with draft concepts and visualizations and is aiming to complete the final plan in February of next year, with an emphasis on creating an actionable plan that identifies implementation steps, partnerships and potential funding sources. "The last thing we want to do is make a plan that just sits on a shelf," she said.

During the public Q&A, a resident who said they had moved to Fort Myers Beach a week earlier asked, "Has a heat map been done on all the vacant lots on the property that have been destroyed by Ian?" Harris replied, "I don't know," and staff offered to follow up on individual questions after the presentation.

The open house is one step in an ongoing engagement process that also includes stakeholder interviews, focus groups and an online survey. The project team and town staff will continue to gather and refine community priorities before returning with draft concepts and the planned February finish for the final document.