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To the editor:
On May 1 a team from the University of Florida Institute for Built Environmental Resistance (FIBER), led by Associate Professor Jeff Carney, presented a remarkable vision of a Restored Matlacha to a group of island civic association leaders. Working with the Fort Myers Collaboratory, the University team of architects and urban designers walked its audience through a 64-slide rendition of ways to deal with the public space challenges of Matlacha in the aftermath of three major hurricanes. In attendance were Lee County Planner Dirk Danley, Jr., and Florida Department of Transportation Project Manager Steven Andrews.
The first part of the project focused on transportation and parking challenges in Matlacha in the context of the FDOT Shared Path Feasibility Study which has been on hold since the hurricanes. The FIBER team presented charts and maps showing its analysis of parking availability and parking needs for all three island "blocks" which make up Matlacha. Next, the study proposed flood adaptation strategies for Matlacha, focusing on public space, parking, landscaping, and land redevelopment.
Drawing from coastal flooding data, the study set out four options for future development and resilience. The first labeled "Tactical Urbanism" proposed immediate interventions without major modifications to Pine Island Road to provide quick, low-cost improvements adaptable to short-term needs. Utilizing colorful asphalt art, landscaping, and a variety of traffic and pedestrian controls, this approach focused on common areas and unconventional parking ideas.
The second option called Big Deck Tidal Flooding Resilience proposed large shared deck platforms hosting mobile structures (e.g., tiny homes, containers).
These platforms include stationary uses such as seating and shop display.
This plan includes no setbacks; development reaches the parcel edge along Pine Island Road. Shared parking is located on the back side of the parcels. This plan includes stormwater management and shoreline restoration with native landscaping.
Options three and four focus on restoration to FEMA base flood elevations and aggressive shoreline restoration and flood management. These options conceive of a Matlacha with permanent structures elevated to current elevation requirements and permanent protection against the FEMA 100-year flood event by state-of-the-art seawalls with nature based shoreline enhancements.
The ingenuity and professionalism of this plan is a real breakthrough for the restoration of Matlacha, and builds on the renderings I circulated after Hurricane Ian of a permanently raised "block one" where we look to the re-opening of Bert's Bar and other Matlacha icons. I look forward to circulating the FIBER plan in the community.
I am also excited that Mr. Danley of Lee County and Mr. Andrews of FDOT were at the meeting. Already numerous property owners are raising their homes or building new homes to FEMA standards. Many are hoping for assistance from Elevate Florida: Florida Department of Emergency Management Residential Mitigation Program.
J. Michael Hannon
Matlacha