In a less-then-ten-minute conversation at their Management & Planning meeting Thursday, the Fort Myers Beach Town Council decided to end any thought of trying to annex San Carlos Island.
The idea, first brought up by council member John King, really had no legs from the get-go. There has been no uproar from residents who live on San Carlos Island to be taken over by Fort Myers Beach. Despite sharing the 33931 zip code with Fort Myers Beach, residents who live on the other side of the Matanzas Pass Bridge (to about Pine Ridge Road) are considered unincorporated Lee County and they want to keep it that way.
When Fort Myers Beach incorporated it was from The Matanzas Pass Bridge to the Big Carlos Pass Bridge and the main reason for incorporation was to control the height of buildings on the island. One of the reasons incorporation plans stopped at the bridge was because those in favor of incorporation thought the effort might fail if they tried to cover the entire zip code. San Carlos Island residents pay property taxes to Lee County but pay Fort Myers Beach Fire Department and Library taxes.
King said Monday that San Carlos Island is already linked and identified as Fort Myers Beach. “It would add to our population and give us control of the look of the front door to Fort Myers Beach.” He said it would be nice to have some things on that side of the bridge taken care of. King might be right that some properties on the other side of the bridge are still in disarray after Hurricane Ian. The same could be said about Times Square just over the bridge, which is partially owned by the town itself. Or, the broken curbs and sidewalks and ugly medians on the north end of Estero, which the town also owns…