Editor’s Note: Citizen Eric Pfeifer spoke during Public Comment at the March 18, 2025, City Council meeting. He said he was representing a group of long-time Sanibel residents who have come together because they are concerned with the pace and scope of the island’s recovery from the recent series of damaging hurricanes. “Our goal is broad-based prosperity and economic stability for homeowners and businesses alike,” Pfeifer said. Here is his full statement:
We fully recognize that during the recovery efforts the city has confronted a myriad of issues and challenges. We do not disparate the well-intended and significant efforts by the council and city staff to address them. These challenges have been among the most difficult in Sanibel’s history.
However, we strongly believe that the recovery efforts have lagged where we, and many of our neighbors, feel it should be, two and a half years after Ian. We wish to underscore that we have no hidden agenda or interest other than the successful and timely recovery of the island.
We recognize that there is not one single priority that will facilitate and accelerate the rebuilding and recovery of Sanibel. To be successful, there must be measurable short and long-term objectives with targeted timetables, assigned responsibilities, dedicated resources, and accountable metrics.
We are committed to working in concert with public officials in identifying areas for improvement. Our mission is to assist in devising solutions to problems in those critical areas that have slowed a timely and accelerated recovery. To be clear, our main concern is the sustainability of the island’s economy. We feel that a successful recovery is not a foregone conclusion.
Therefore, we would like Council to implement the following initiatives:
1. Create a City Council Meeting Agenda Item called Economic Recovery, to announce progress and challenges, as well as listen to public input.
2. Establish Clear, Measurable Recovery Goals – Define short- and long-term benchmarks for rebuilding.
3. Streamline Permitting and Regulatory Processes – Continue to shift from a reactive, enforcement-heavy approach to a proactive, solutions-driven mindset that prioritizes getting homes and businesses back online. We encourage a “find a way to yes” mentality.
4. Implement Monthly Staff Development Meetings between the City Manager and Department heads to ensure cross-departmental collaboration and streamline open permits. The City Manager must be aware of challenging permits. He should not hear complaints from the applicants.
5. Develop a meaningful relationship with Lee County Commissioners to foster collaboration, project funding and support. The Mayor should communicate regularly with our District 1 County Commissioner.
6. Hire an Ombudsman to act as an intermediary between city staff and the community, ensuring communication, assisting with process and eliminating red tape.
7. Direct the Public Information Officer (PIO) to be more visible and ensure the City provides consistent unified messaging from one source only.
8. Begin updating the Land Development Code, creating “Sanibel 2.0” to address new challenges, resiliency and modernization that did not exist when the original LDC was adopted 50 years ago.
We wish to be clear that our efforts do not in ANY way support increased density or intensity of use of existing provisions of the Sanibel Plan. Height should be part of the conversation only for structures wishing to be more resilient.
We look forward to working as partners, advocating a comprehensive civic agenda to ensure the economic sustainability of Sanibel.
To that end we have developed a “Score Card” to track and measure the rate and breadth of the key metrics of our recovery process. We provide this to offer a data-driven independent analysis of the recovery process.