Angry with City Code
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•.••'ay-' ""•'' Week of Oct. 10-16, 2002 SANIBEL&CAPTIVA, FLORIDA VOLUME 29, NUMBER 40, 20 PAGES 75 CENTS II Til NEWS ART ECO A SIGN OF PLANETARY TIMES East Rocks Ei Planning Commission • Denial likely on requested variance. angry with • Sweet sell —See page 2 city code Q A 'Ding' day By Erik Burriss National Wildlife Staff Writer Refuge Week, Oct. 12 The Sanibel Planning Commission —See page 3 will wait for a legal opinion on existing city codes about nuisances before mak- •3 Goss on tour ing any recommendations to City Council about possible unkempt lawn Southwest Florida legislation. students get insider's Spurred by a nearby yard that went view of Washington. unmowed for half a year, several East Rocks' residents urged the city to put —See page 3 Dawn deBoer photo something in place to allow the Police Department or Code Enforcement to Renowned eco-minded artists Clyde Butcher, above, and Luc Century, below, put their art to work do something about similar situations for the environment this week. Century's Calusa Art Project was in place for the Florida Museum in the future. CITV«60UNTY of Natural History's grand opening Saturday in Gainesville. Butcher and his latest exhibit of large- The discussion started off with a 60- format, black-and-white photographs of Florida landscapes made a duo appearance Tuesday at the slide photo essay of various landscap- 0 Leeway cut South Florida Water Management District's center in Fort Myers in behalf of restoring the ing options from Commissioner Marie Everglades. (See story and photos, page 19.) Gargano. Gargano took photographs Discount program all over the island, showing everything renewal deadline from homes w\vh a few uees ov shvubs coming up Oct. 15. U.) \vu\\s oY veaeuiuon. a home in tucie s.oiue- page 3 wiere," Gargano said. However, the problem rests where owners go with a traditional yard like the one in East ENflRilMilT Rocks, Mel Hyatt said. !' "It's a lawn, it's not zeroscaped, it's m island garden not gravel, it's not decorative rocks'' Hyatt said. "The grass was so tall.it Start hunting for was falling over." . •'.'.•'.. that recipe for banana Nearby property owners were both nut bread. embarrassed by and scared of the over- grown lot, he said. —See page 10 "We're talking about a situation that's an insult to the people next door,"' Hyatt said. "It's a neglected property." OP-ED PJtli While the city has a a nuisance ordi- nance on the books, Planning Director Bruce Rogers and Commission Chair- n People's view woman Linda Robison said it cannot Uncontrolled growth not in the See CODE game plan. Renny Severance photo page 19 —See page 5 Island roads get early morning treatment Moonlighting takes on new aura island calendar By Dawn deBoer Boulevard, Periwinkle Way and San-Cap Island entertainment Managing Editor Road, including a new crosswalk at makes the rounds. Bailey Road, to six figures •— $896,000. —See page 9 Bright lights, action, but no camera. In Only a few weeks behind schedule, the midnight hours under high-intensity the city had hoped to have this summer's lights brilliant enough to turn night into road projects completed by Sept.- 30. day, it only looked to evening drivers With the Sewer Phase IIB project at the like a Hollywood film crew took over the eastern end of the island now complete, island's main road while work men and and West Gulf Drive's Phase IIC project •- BUSINESS page 11 women resurfaced and striped under way, Public Works Director Gates Periwinkle Way until 5 a.m. Monday. Castle said the late-night hours are over. • COMMUNITY.... page 9 Tuesday night the crews were back at So is top-dollar pay. The city pays extra for night owls to curb traffic complaints. • DATELINE page 9. it, but with fewer lights and one less steamroller, which put them back on the Road crews are on the day-shift for • ENVIRONMENT.. page 10 road again Wednesday for the grand repaving the southern-leg portion of Sandcastle Road still to come. • PERMITS&DEEDS page 2 finale. Island residents and work crews get a Take heart, though. This production Dawn deBoer photo • OP-ED PAGE... page 5 did not carry a Hollywood price tag. break, at least until 2004, when Public Public Works kept this year's overlaying Works picks up where they left off this • TV LISTINGS page 12 of portions of Causeway Road, Lindgren time around. Donax area, get ready. Striping Periwinkle Way until 5 a.m. Monday, the road crew was back at it by 8 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday. • CLASSIFIEDS page 17 2 • Week of Oct. 10-16, 2002 • ISLAND REPORTER At left, the humpback whale; 3 Beach renourishment Smart Growth below, the right whale workshop workshop tack- A City Council workshop on les beach renourishment is sched- uled at 7 p.m. Oct. 29 at the transportation Sanibel Community House on Periwinkle Way. By Amy Fleming Staff Writer The Smart Growth Committee continued exploring ways to Denial likely improve transportation in Lee County in an Oct. 2 subcommit- tee workshop to discuss progess by city ors made and identify areas requiring more attention. What whales have in common, aside from their basic anatomical similarities, however, variance "We'ie taking a better look at is that they are avatars of a free and wild spirit manifested by their size, the length of what results we want," said their migrations, and their soundings of the depths. By Erik Burriss Wayne Daltry, Smart Growth Staff Writer director. "Different county dep- tartments are providing assess- Despite the downsizing of a pro- ments on where we are on these posed house by the property owners, issues. We look at regulations, the Planning Commission is poised budgets and our neighbors, figure 'whaleO'MIGHTY to deny a variance allowing the out who our allies are and, at the end of the year, have a course Hurricane Lane home to be built. outlined to put in place." VISITORS TO THE GULF With a 4-2 vote Tuesday, the com- The Smart Growth mission directed the staff to draft a Transportation Subcommittee has scale vessel surveys to assess cetacean dis- resolution denying Robert and Alma been working with other county 'There go flukes' tribution and abundance in the Gulf were Honeycutt's request to build within agencies, such as the Lee conducted by the National Marine Fisheries 30 feet of Hurricane Lane. The County Department of required 50-foot, front setback By Mike Hannan Service in 1990, Transportation, in looking at The NMFS survey led to leaves the Honeycutts about 850 ways to make getting around Lee Staff Writer the Minerals Management square feet of buildable area. County a Little easier. Service's (an agency of the The initial July 23 hearing was Subcommitee members anibel is Department of the interior) continued to allow the Honeycutts, looked at the continual county- considered funding of the GulfCet who at the time were requesting to wide updating of traffic signal Sone of the Program. be allowed to build to within 23 feet synchronization. LCDOT cur- top three shelling f ,«. The MMS, which over- of the private road easement, to rently has a project under way to areas in the world. ""* **is sees the leasing and produc- redesign the house to bring it more in develop new signal timings at Such a reputation tion of offshore minerals, line with the city's "minimum neces- 100 of the 340 traffic signals. frequently over- sary" standard for variances. The Currently, 83 percent of county was concerned with the shadows the other impact that oil and gas oper- design they presented to the commis- signals are part of 53 synchro- natural beauties of sion Tuesday knocked 550 square nized systems. LCDOT will ations would have on marine the island: that mammals. To understand that feet off the initial proposal. begin a travel time/delay evalua- The Whale Museum tion next year. there are wood impact, it first had to under- "The applicant has made a major storks, the only Resolving the conflict stand the distribution, abundance, and improvement," said Commissioner between travel needs while member of the stork family native to the behavior of marine mammals. To that end John Dillon, who along with weighing community character western hemisphere; that the island is a they funded GulfCet. Commissioner Jack Samler voted concerns — such as a recent sug- major nesting site for loggerhead and even GulfCet refers to two studies of against the denial resolution. gestion to rename Colonial that there are bald eagles cetaceans in the Gulf of Mexico that were Commission Chairwoman Linda Boulevard and Lee Boulevard ;S and Texaj , Robison agreed the applieatiftj^ "Veteran's Parkway" to provide Sstdh. The research was con- underwent major changes, but not continuity with the road m Cape Dolphins are members of the Cetacea ducted using a variety of techniques includ- enough to be granted approval. Coral. LCDOT noted that since order, which also includes whales and por- ing visual surveys, daylight observations "I really can't see that you've met Lee County developed before poises. When we see undulating dark forms using "bigeye" binoculars (25X150); the requirements," Robison said. roads were connected together, it in the waters off the causeway or along around-the-clock, acoustic surveys using a Carol Bradshaw, treasurer of the was difficult to change road Sanibel's beaches, we are seeing dolphins. towed array of hydrophones, that recorded Hurricane Lane Homeowners Assoc- names because of local commu- However, if we went further out into the cetacean vocalizations; genetic and contam- iation, expressed concern about the nity concerns.