Lee County approves hurricane recovery plan

Lee County voted to accept the Resilient Lee Recovery and Resilience Plan for final consideration during the Board of County Commissioners meeting on Tuesday, March 19. This plan is the product of the Long-Term Recovery Task Force, which was approved by the board back in December 2022, just months after Hurricane Ian caused widespread destruction. […]

Lee County voted to accept the Resilient Lee Recovery and Resilience Plan for final consideration during the Board of County Commissioners meeting on Tuesday, March 19.

This plan is the product of the Long-Term Recovery Task Force, which was approved by the board back in December 2022, just months after Hurricane Ian caused widespread destruction. The task force unanimously voted to approve the plan on Feb. 23 before it went to the county commissioners for consideration. 

The plan is to survey and assess Lee County needs, identify and engage key partners to address those needs, develop solutions and maximize funding to implement those solutions. It is intended to be a starting point to promote coordination between the government, private sector, community organizations and the public based on recovery priorities, according to the plan’s scope.

The task force, chaired by County Commissioner Kevin Ruane, contains 43 core initiatives identified as medium- and long-term needs to help assist the community through recovery and encourage resilience from future impacts of natural and human-made disasters. 

Teams of community members synthesized months of community input, feedback and analysis to create the ResilientLee plan. The eight recovery branches are planning and capacity, economic recovery, education and workforce, health and social services, infrastructure, housing, natural resources and cultural resources.

At Tuesday’s meeting, Commissioner Brian Hamman thanked Ruane for his leadership, adding that the community is coming back thanks to the involvement of the task force. 

“In the wake of Hurricane Ian, the third costliest storm to ever hit the United States of America, we knew in our community that we would be facing a historic rebuild,” Hamman said.

One item identified was the need for attainable workforce housing, especially near employment centers, including on barrier islands where there are site specific industries like shrimping, agriculture and hospitality that need their workers to live locally. 

The plan also includes an item for managing hurricane debris, recognizing that barrier islands and smaller communities have limited availability to create additional debris management areas. It outlines that the task force must determine the need and increase the number of available debris staging areas.

Additionally, permanent facilities for barge operations must be developed for each island in the event of a disaster or any event that disrupts vehicular access across bridges that are singular access points to barrier islands, according to one section of the plan. 

“Now we have a lot of real hard work to do,” Ruane said at the meeting. “I’m proud of where we are at month 18 … but in the same token, we have a lot to do.”

To review the full plan, go to resilientlee.com.

Other construction and housing news

The Affordable Housing Advisory Committee has scheduled a special meeting at 8:30 a.m. on March 27 to receive member updates and discuss modifications to the Charlotte HOME program for recommendation to the Charlotte County Commission.

The public is invited to attend and provide input on agenda items. 

For information, contact the Charlotte County Human Services Department Housing Division at (941) 833-6500.