by SC Reporter Emilie Alfino
At a public hearing that started four hours past the designated time, Sanibel City Council voted to make elevated beach dune walkovers permeable under certain conditions. This eliminates a barrier to permitting elevated beach dune walkovers for the protection of the dunes. This applies to the Gulf Beach Zone and to the Bay Beach Zone equally.
Elevated beach dune walkovers shall be deemed to be 100 percent permeable, in the Gulf Beach Zone (seaward of the 1974 Coastal Construction Control Line), and in the Bay Beach Zone, and such areas shall not be counted as coverage by impermeable surfaces, provided that:
(1) Siting. Elevated walkovers shall be installed from the 1974 Coastal Construction Control Line (CCCL) to no less than the seaward toe of frontal dune or the existing line of vegetation, but not farther than 10 feet seaward of the vegetation;
(2) Design. Walkovers shall be post-supported structures;
(3) Height. No less than two feet above grade, as measured to the bottom of support beam of the structure;
(4) Width. Maximum width of five feet;
(5) Deck planking. Deck planking shall be no wider than six inches. Spacing between planks shall be no less than one-half inch between deck planking. Alternative materials may be used for decking where it provides an equivalent or greater amount of stormwater infiltration and light penetration as the deck planking standards, as demonstrated by an engineering report or other competent evidence.
In other Council news, an ordinance was approved to amend filing procedures for the purpose of updating the Land Development Code regulations. The changes were referred to as “common sense house cleaning.” This move will clean up extraneous or outdated references and requirements – some due to the shift in permit processing from in-person filing of paper hard-copy applications to submittal of digital applications online via Energov starting in 2020. It will further consolidate and simplify several areas of filing procedure consistent with updated forms.
First Reading. Council heard a first reading of an ordinance to amend the Code to delete required conditions relating to vegetated landscape buffers that have been subject to an “administrative stay” since 2014. A public hearing is scheduled for December 3.
Temporary Storage Units. Council extended authorization for temporary storage units through September 30, 2025. Properties with one or more dwelling units damaged by Hurricane Ian that have not yet completed necessary repairs are now authorized, without a permit, to place up to two temporary storage units on a developed portion of their property, effective through September 30, 2025, so long as the storage units are no longer than 16 feet nor any taller nor wider than eight feet.
Chief Dalton Appointed. Police Chief William Dalton was appointed to the Lee County Disaster Advisory Council, a position he has held in the past.
New Police Captain. Chief Dalton introduced the new Police Captain, Patrick Harris, who comes to Sanibel with long experience in Virginia Beach. He is a 29-year career law enforcement veteran with a distinguished record of public service. More than 18 of those years have been in a supervisory or management capacity in a major resort city with a permanent population of 450,000, a yearly inflex of visitors numbering in the millions, and 800 sworn officers.
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