by SC Reporter Emilie Alfino
The city held its first Sanibel Plan Update Community Workshop on Thursday, February 19, at the Sanibel Community House.
The nearly full house heard from Mayor Mike Miller and Sanibel Plan Update Advisory Committee Chair Calli Johnson DuPont before watching a PowerPoint presentation and participating in live polling.
When asked, “What concerns you most about the future of Sanibel?” Fifty-one percent of those present answered, “Loss of community character.”
Eighty-five percent of the audience said they thought that the Sanibel Vision Statement accurately represents the city’s values.
Asked to describe, in one to three words, their vision for Sanibel over the next 20 years, the word most often named, by far, was “sanctuary,” with “community” a distant second.
Mayor Miller said this Plan review process started a couple of years ago, before Hurricane Ian. “Things are different today, so we should perhaps reassess,” he said. Last year, the Sanibel Plan Update Advisory Committee was formed.
The mayor said he had heard some people thought this effort was perhaps a “backdoor approach” to eliminating or changing the island’s status as a “sanctuary” island. “That could not be further from the truth,” Miller stressed. “Our commitment to our barrier island sanctuary and living in harmony with nature and wildlife has not changed.”
The question for this endeavor is: Can the Sanibel Plan and the Land Development Code be improved to more effectively protect Sanibel’s values and also accomplish some other goals, including but not limited to:
• Completing the recovery
• Achieving greater resilience
• Building a better community
The committee working on the Sanibel Plan Update, along with a consultant, includes Chair Calli Johnson DuPont, Vice Chair Eric Pfeifer, Nicole McHale, James Evans, Bob Moore, Jeffrey Muddell, and Larry Schopp.
The consultant is Calvin Giordano & Associates. The committee is charged with reviewing the Plan and suggesting changes. Its last meeting will be March 18, at which point the consultants take over for a line-by-line rewrite or update.
The Sanibel Plan is a long-range policy document that serves as the city’s “constitution” or “blueprint” for development and the foundation for the Land Development Code.
Fifty-four percent of workshop attendees said they were very familiar with the Sanibel Plan.
Residents, though, have concerns about what could prevent Sanibel from achieving its goals. The live survey at the workshop showed that attendees rated “overdevelopment” as the biggest obstacle by far, with “hurricanes” coming in second.
What the Sanibel Plan will not do is provide solutions to all of the community’s problems. The Plan will provide the Sanibel community with guidance for decisions grounded in community values and consensus.
There will be another opportunity for public input, with a workshop in March. A website is also being prepared.
I find it telling that the reporter chose to focus first on the 51% of respondents concerned about the so-called “loss of community” – without a definition of what “community” refers to in the respondents’ eyes. 51% is a very narrow majority – clearly 49% of us feel that the Sanibel community spirit remains strong.