London Bay’s Outrigger rezone meets LPA Friday

London Bay will be holding a public informational meeting Wednesday at the DiamondHead Beach Resort for its redevelopment plans for the Outrigger Resort on Fort Myers Beach. The plans include a hotel and a condo building. Rendering provided courtesy of London Bay

London Bay Development Group’s quest to turn the former Outrigger Resort property into a mixed hotel and condo development with multiple high-rise towers with plans for controversial water taxis, will take its first formal review from the Fort Myers Beach Local Planning Agency on Friday at town hall.

Public hearings will be held on four ordinances to allow the developers to make a Comprehensive Plan Amendment to allow for a mixed used of hotel and residential units by rezoning the property and turn it into a Commercial Planned Development. They will need approvals to build above the four-story height limit in the town to allow for the high-rise towers they are proposing and additional intensity over the code.

The extensive plans and agenda for the meeting were just released to the public on Tuesday morning, a mere three days before a public hearing scheduled for Friday.

The meeting will be the first chance for the LPA and public to comment on and address the final proposal from the Naples-based development group. London Bay Development Group made a presentation to the public in February in which the public raised concerns about the height of the buildings, traffic and potential impacts to nearby canals through the use of water taxis.

The plans submitted to the town which will be reviewed by the Local Planning Agency confirms the fears of neighbors that the developers will indeed seek to provide and encourage the use of water taxis. Residents who live along the side streets and canals have deep concerns that their canals will be overrun by commercial boat traffic to service the hotel.

Dawn Miller, who co-owns The Whale restaurant and lives on Bahia Via where the water taxis would run past, said representatives of London Bay Development Group met with the community in June to discuss their plans to use the water taxis.

Miller said the water taxis will run along the canal between Bahia Via and Curlew Street. “It’s a substantial amount of people that will be come to our town using our canal,” Miller said. Miller said she believes the water taxis are in part a substitute for the developers not having enough parking on their property. “They don’t have ample parking,” Miller said.

Miller said during the meeting with the residents that live along the canal, the developers said they have a right to use the canal. Miller believes they will have to erect a dock at the former Charley’s Boat House property in order to service the water taxis.

The water taxis would erode her sense of privacy along her canal with water taxis that could be passing by her property constantly every day. “There is zero privacy,” she said.

The Outrigger, one of the most popular resorts on the island before Hurricane Ian, was demolished by London Bay Development Group to make way for a $200 million redevelopment.

The plans call for 100 hotel rooms and 50 hotel/condo rooms in one of the high-rises and 46 multi-family condo units in the other high-rise building along with restaurants, a public linear park, beach bar and a rooftop bar.

According to one section of the application, the hotel and hotel-condominium buildings, adjacent to Estero Boulevard, are 10 and 11 stories over two stories of parking for 12 and 13-stories respectively.

A second part of the building is perpendicular with the beach and will accommodate a 12-story building also over two stories of parking, making it 14 stories high in total. However, another section of the LPA documents submitted by the project’s architect RVI Planning states that the proposed structures will range in height from 10 stories to 17 stories and up to a maximum of 200 feet. The total proposed floor area is more than 510,000 square feet, according to planning documents submitted by RVI Planning.

The Outrigger Resort was approximately 35 feet high at its tallest building.

The developers are seeking an increase in density and intensity over what the town code allows.

The site will provide 300 vehicle parking spaces and up to 72 spaces for bicycles, golf carts, and e-charge stations for scooters. Recreational amenities include a pool, spa and outdoor area, a lobby, office space, private beach club and event/conference rooms. Additionally, there is dedicated commercial public space that includes a public restaurant, hotel lobby bar, hotel grab-n-go, rooftop bar and a beach access and linear park. There will be a new public beach access and linear park will contain enhanced landscaping, benches/seating, public restrooms, and other hardscape site features.

The resort is also proposing a new public beach access along the south property line. The access abuts Beach Access 11Z (Bahia Via) to the south.

London Bay Development purchased The Outrigger and Charley’s Boat House and Grille for $38.2 million last year and subsequently demolished the buildings.

The Outrigger dated back to the 1960’s. London Bay Development Group built The Grandview at Bay Beach, a condo tower off Bay Beach Lane near Santini Plaza on Fort Myers Beach.

According to London Bay Development Group’s application, the previous Comprehensive Plan Development for the Outrigger Resort allowed for 144 hotel rooms.

The proposed development will create up to 9,000 square feet of publicly accessible commercial retail uses including a tiki hut style beach bar “as the capstone to the linear park paying homage to the Outrigger Resort,” according to the plans. The park area will be

surrounded by landscaping and seating and active beach amenities, wash stations and

restrooms.

The hotel amenities include a ballroom and event terrace, café and market,

destination restaurant, hotel lobby lounge, and rooftop bar and terrace.

London Bay Development Group partner Mark Wilson acknowledged at the February presentation that the developers were seeking a major deviation from the town’s local development code. “We are asking for a large deviation,” Wilson said. “Nobody is going to take this parcel and do a two-story building over parking. It would be a travesty for the land.”

In defense of their height deviation request, the developers cite several other high-rise towers that neighbor the property. Those buildings were constructed before the Town of Fort Myers Beach changed its zoning after incorporation in the 1990’s and limited the heights of all future construction to four stories.

Asked for comment on London Bay Development Group’s plans, Fort Myers Beach Mayor Dan Allers said Tuesday morning “I have not seen their proposal yet.”