A former Cape Coral mayor and others oppose the city's proposed moratoriums on self-storage and car wash developments, saying it runs against a senate bill.

"I think the majority; the money spending, economic driver of our community, says we want to have a self-storage facility, and I hope the city will acknowledge both that need as well as the fact that the moratorium simply is not appropriate under the law," attorney and former Cape Coral Mayor Eric P. Feichthaler said.

Feichthaler represents Hal Arkins, a 77-year-old Cape Coral resident who has been in real estate in Lee County for more than four decades, and he worries that this change will wrongfully delay developments for his clients and others.

The Cape Coral City Council is to have a final vote on April 17.

Moratorium explained

Cape Coral is contemplating a moratorium that would "pause" new self-storage and car wash developments for the rest of the year, arguing that they take precious commercial land as the city grows at a rapid pace.

If approved, any applicant seeking to build a car wash or storage facility that hasn't been issued a final development permit, building permit, site plan approval, or any other official action by the city before April 17 will not move forward.

The moratoriums will last until Jan. 17, or until the city council adopts changes to the city's land development codes.

Cape Coral has 1.5 million square feet of existing self-storage space throughout the city and is estimated to have 1.6 million square feet of self-storage space either in permitting or under construction, bringing the total to 3.1 million.

When applying industry standards and the city's population, the city has identified needing between 1.04 million to 2.08 million square feet for its residents, meaning the total amount of self-storage facilities exceeds the city's needs by a third.

Cape Coral City Council had previously passed a moratorium on self-storage facilities in April 2023, which lasted until January.

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Woes from builders

Arkins is the primary owner of a nearly three-acre parcel off of Burnt Store Road and Embers Parkway, which he has been assembling for the past 12 years, and worries that his development is endangered.

"This isn't like the Self Storage you see of the older ones in Fort Myers, with rollout doors and facing the road, it looks like a professional office building, so it really fits in with the kind of development the city wants," Feichthaler said.

Feichthaler said this moratorium places doubts on whether the development can move forward despite being in the permitting process for more than a year.

"Not only has he basically not been able to retire, while this thing works itself out, but it's caused him an enormous amount of stress," Feichthaler said.

He said the owner is currently in court over the council voting not to vacate an alley at that property, which coupled with the pause on new developments, may impede the progress of the development.

"It's going to hold up the permitting; it's going to hold off the sale, it's all contingent on (if the property can be developed)," Feichthaler said.

Kevin Besserer, director of public policy for the Royal Palm Coast Realtor Association, spoke at the first hearing and said he opposed the moratoriums because of private rights.

"We find it to be a violation of fundamental private property rights," Besserer said. "We do also believe an ordinance like this opens up the city to potential legal liability."

When asked if Arkins's development would be affected by the moratorium, the city responded with the vested rights portion of the ordinance.

A property owner can file a "claim of vested rights" within 90 days of the moratorium and hold a public hearing before the council to begin or complete their development.

Vested rights will be granted if a property owners can demonstrate they have applications for administrative review for development permits, building permits, site plan approval, and any other official action by the city for self-storage received on or after March 20, 2024, and before April 17, 2024; be making substantial expenditures on good faith; and if it would be found to be highly inequitable to deny the owner the right to complete development.

Senate Bill 250

The ordinance for the self-storage and car wash moratorium states that because the moratorium applies to unimproved land that "by its vacant nature did not suffer property damage from Hurricane Ian or Nicole," they are not affected by Senate Bill 250.

Feichthaler argues otherwise and says that a separate clause contradicts the city's reason for exemption.

The Legislature passed Senate Bill 250 in 2023 as a way to prohibit counties and municipalities within 100 miles of Hurricane Ian or Nicole's landfall from adopting more restrictive or burdensome procedures to their comprehensive plans or land development regulations concerning review, approval, or issuance of a site plan, development permit, or development order before Oct. 1, 2024.

He said that because this process would put more restrictions on self-storage and car wash developments in acquiring permits, the city should not be allowed to go through with this, until Oct 1 at least.

"Their interpretation of the statute and the ordinance is clearly erroneous," Feichthaler said.

Feichthaler suggests that the city starts incentivizing other kinds of businesses they want if they want variety.

"I understand the city's point that they want to have different types of commercial development, but one of the things they didn't get into, rather than punish people, which is what this is doing, they need to provide incentives to get the things they want," Feichthaler said. "That's how other cities get the kind of businesses they want is to provide incentives."

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Cape Coral Moratoriums for storage units, car washes, draw backlash