by SC Publisher Shannen Hayes
Planning Commission recommended adoption of two required updates to the Sanibel Plan in its Tuesday meeting. The amendments are necessary to comply with state statutes Peril of Flood and Private Property Rights.
In 2015, Florida Legislature passed Senate Bill 1094, “Peril of Flood,” which specifies requirements for the coastal management element of local comprehensive plans related to coastal flooding and impacts of sea level rise.
But the foresight of the city’s founders has put the island ahead of the state. The Sanibel Plan, considered a coastal management plan, sets development parameters based on ecological zones because the island’s sanctuary quality was placed above development and tourism.
City Planner Kim Ruiz told Commissioners the Sanibel Plan already addresses many of the items mandated in the state’s Peril of Flood statute. But the comprehensive plan does not have statements directing those items.
“It’s clear the state’s concerns are with structures built in flood-prone areas, but the entire island is in a FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) flood zone,” said Ruiz. “We don’t have the means to totally eliminate building within flood zones.”
In order to clearly comply with the Peril of Flood requirements, city staff proposed adding a subsection to the Plan’s Section 3.1 Safety to directly address preventing, reducing and mitigating flood damage to public and private structures. Those goals, objectives and policies are a means to meet state requirements in a manner conducive to the Sanibel Plan.
“We decided the way to satisfy the state’s mandate was best done under the ‘Safety’ chapter of The Sanibel Plan,” said Ruiz, who painstakingly went through every page of the Plan twice and carefully composed the suggested amendment.
She said the concerns under the Peril of Flood statute is to reduce flooding of structures and encourage communities to participate in the flood insurance program and community rating system program.
Again, Sanibel is ahead of the state. It joined the National Flood Insurance Program in 1979 to facilitate good floodplain management and was the first city to receive a five rating from the FEMA Community Rating System. And to keep its CRS five rating, the city added the “Floodplain Management Ordinance” to the Land Development Code in 2018.
The city also adopted a repetitive loss plan in 1992, which is designed to identify and minimize problem flooding areas. The Comprehensive Floodplain Management Plan was adopted three years later to reduce or eliminate risk to people and property from flood hazard.
A draft Watershed Management Plan was completed in 2018, but has yet to be adopted by the city.
Ruiz explained the Sanibel Plan is more strict than the Florida statute, which is the minimum required. “I was very vigilant in reading the Plan to address the state’s mandates, but in a way that is not detrimental to the Plan,” said Ruiz.
Commissioners unanimously voted to recommend adoption of the proposed amendment to meet the Perils of Flood statute. The vote included revising flood maps to incorporate certain major roads and remove non-major roads, as well as show critical infrastructure, such as all public utilities and government buildings.
“This was really well correlated and the appendix was delightful to use,” said Commission Chair Roger Grogman of the staff’s report. “I found it to be quite clear, quite concise. I would congratulate you for taking on this task and you made what I though was going to be extremely complicated very clear.”
Private Property Rights
Commissioners voted 6-1 to recommend adoption of Part 3.7 Property Rights to the Sanibel Plan as required by House Bill 59, a comprehensive growth management bill which went into effect in July 2021.
AICP Planner Paula McMichael with Hole Montez, a Southwest Florida-based engineering, surveying and planning company contracted by the city to prepare the property rights element, told commissioners this state-mandated amendment does not create any new property rights. It just enumerates how rights are already defined by the U.S. Constitution, Florida Constitution and judiciary.
“Again, these are not new property rights being developed and it does not abrogate any of the City of Sanibel’s regulations. You still have home rule. You still have the power to regulate land use in your community,” McMichael said.
Commissioner Karen Storjohann voted against the recommendation based on use of the word “morals” cited in the background discussion of the proposed policy, which is from a 1926 Supreme Court case on zoning ordinances as an acceptable use of police power.
McMichael explained the language was reciting what the law is and the basis for the decisions being made. “It’s more explaining how local cities have power to make regulations,” she said. “It is setting forth the rights of cities to legislate, which is a good thing.”
Storjohann said she didn’t think “the city should have the right to arbitrate morals, so I would have to vote no.”
The Planning Commission Resolutions on Private Property Rights and Peril of Flood will move to City Council for review and formal adoption into the Sanibel Plan.
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