'Looks like a junkyard:' Florida neighbors push city to remove Hurricane Ian debris

When the residents of High Point Place look out their windows, they take in a panorama that encompasses the yawning stretch of the Caloosahatchee, pedestrians and a handful of cars buzzing around Fort Myers' charming downtown...and a junk heap.

Since Hurricane Ian swept through Southwest Florida, bringing storm surge more than a dozen feet high in places, Lee County and its municipalities have worked to clear out the wreckage the storm left behind. But in downtown Fort Myers, not everything has been attended to.

Scattered around lots, including the Legacy Harbor Marina, just a few hundred feet from Centennial Park, lie beached boats, rusted-out excavators, broken fences, and more. It marred the view, changed the feel of the charming Southern city's downtown, and, some said, could even be dangerous.

"It looks like a junkyard," said Kathy Morgan, one of the residents of High Point Place. "It's our neighborhood, so of course we don't want that to be part of it."

Five women who call High Point Place home decided to tackle the project. And after more than six months of work, more than two dozen First Street neighbors showed up to Fort Myers City Council Monday evening to plead their case to a sympathetic council.

City Council member Fred Burson agreed, saying he was disappointed the city hasn’t cleaned it up sooner.

“It’s a blight on the city," Burson said. "If the federal government won’t do it, we’ll do it and bill somebody later.”

Five neighbors tackled blight

Kathy Morgan, Ilene Safron, Annalene Roehr, Mary Jo Felix, and Sharon Dewey began talking about the rusty junk scattered around their neighborhood around September of 2023, roughly a year after the storm came and went. They couldn't understand why it hadn't been cleaned up yet, and decided to educate themselves about how they could help.

They met with county officials, city officials, and more over the course of roughly six months, Roehr said. They exchanged emails, attended meetings and workshops, even walked around their neighborhood with local officials. As they did, they learned the county had nothing to do with this, and soon narrowed in on land owners, lesees and the city, which own some of the property in question.

"You had to learn about meetings and code enforcements to get an idea about where to start to help them," Morgan said.

They want the property cleaned up, oh, a year ago, they joked – but they are serious about seeing their neighborhood returned to its former glory.

First Street neighbors turn out in support

Neighbor James Lauman was one of many who came out to support the women leading the charge, he said.

"It's an eyesore for downtown, an embarrassment for anyone coming to visit Fort Myers," Lauman said.

He, like the others, wore a white shirt. So many turned out that the chambers were closed before everyone in attendance could make it inside. About twenty people and at least one reporter stood in the lobby, watching the meeting unfold on the television on the wall.

"All this time they thought we were just five ladies," said Roehr. "But we would always say there's a whole neighborhood behind us."

And that's exactly who showed up.

Further complicating the cleanup, some of the property is city-owned, while some of it is private. And some is a combination of the two.

Take Legacy Harbour Marina, which public records show was purchased for $20 million in December 2021 by NRIA, or National Realty Investment Advisors. The marina was sold to developer AIRN after NRIA declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy just six months after its purchase of Legacy Harbour. AIRN (NRIA spelled backwards) acquired the property in August 2023 via a quitclaim deal in which AIRN paid just $10 for the property.

While AIRN owns the dry land, docks and infrastructure, the land submerged beneath the waters of the Caloosahatchee belongs to the city of Fort Myers, said attorney Gary Dunay, meaning this property comes with a perpetual lease from the city. Whoever purchases the land must also agree to take over the lease.

Some neighbors attending in support of the project said they believed the combination of private and public lands involved slowed the clean-up down, as entities stared down the other, hoping someone else would pay for the junk removal.

Ultimately, though, Lauman said, "the city had a responsibility, Legacy has a responsibility."

Morgan doubled down on the hope that, once clean, the city and landowners keep the area clean going forward. She said they hope the mayor and city council pressure private property owners to remove the junk and repair their properties and fencing.

Cleaning up rusted junk, boats, Ian debris

Ultimately, it appears the women of High Point Place might get what they want, and soon. City Council members were pointedly aghast at the continued presence of large, rusted-out construction equipment and boats, and City Emergency Manager Kristy Mathews was called to speak on the matter.

Mathews, to her credit, apologized to the city council for the junk still lying around, more than a year and a half after the storm.

"We had cleaned it up in our opinion and I am not sure where the disconnect came from but I appreciate them bringing it to our attention," Mathews said. She added that crews marked it off as cleaned up, and they turned their attention to lower-priority cleanups.

Mathews also said while a number of the boats had been tagged by the state immediately following the storm, they were not the state's responsibility to clean up –– that was on the city as well. She promised this would be a priority.

"Throughout history, most change has occurred because of citizens advocating for their community," Mayor Kevin Anderson said, thanking them for their work. He went on to tell Mathews he wanted this project completed immediately.

Now, this victory hopefully imminent, the women of High Point Place say, they're planning to keep their clean-up group going. They will next turn their attention to the water, and the lighting in downtown.

Kate Cimini is the Florida Investigative Reporter for the USA TODAY-Network Florida, based at The News-Press and The Naples Daily News. Contact her at 239-207-9369 or kcimini@news-press.com.

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Fort Myers Florida neighbors push city to remove Hurricane Ian debris