Hurricane Ian continues to affect planning; Estero can't fix mistake on hotel parking

Hurricane Ian continues to affect planning and development throughout Southwest Florida because of a state law prohibiting restrictive or harsher rules: In Estero, the village council can't fix a mistake in its development code for hotel parking for almost three years.

Village planners say a requirement for hotels/motels to have 1 parking space per 1.2 guest rooms should have been 1.2 spaces per guest room. The mistake was an accidental transposing of numbers, but an approved update can't go into effect until October 2026.

"We think the parking isn't quite enough, but we can't make anybody comply until Oct. 1, 2026," Mary Gibbs, director of community development, told council members Wednesday.

Hurricane relief bill

In November, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a hurricane relief bill that included a two-year extension of a ban on stricter or harsher land development rules in 10 counties, including Lee and Collier, damaged by Hurricane Ian. DeSantis signed the first bill – SB 250 – over the summer. Originally, the legislation applied to more than 30 counties affected by hurricanes Ian and Nicole.

For the Village of Estero, two approved and planned hotels are affected, along with two proposed and scheduled to be discussed Dec. 12 at a Planning, Zoning & Design Board meeting.

Two approved hotels affected now

The Review Board on Nov. 14 approved plans for a 115-room Hilton Garden Inn to be built at 8009 Sweetwater Ranch Blvd. In 2020, Village Council gave the go-ahead to a 135-room hotel that would be built along Interstate 75 at Miromar Outlets.

It was a letter from Miromar attorney Marty Steinberg of Miami-based Hogan Lovells that put the village on notice that the land development correction would violate the new law.

"The Miromar Development Corporation ("Miromar") hotel project located at the Miromar Outlets is zoned for 135 rooms. The required parking spaces would increase from 113 to 162 parking spaces under the proposed amendment to the LDC," Steinberg wrote. "This letter serves as Miromar's formal (objection) to the proposed amendment. We believe that SB 250 prohibits the adoption of the amendment to increase the parking requirement for hotels/motels. In addition, there is no substantive rationale for increasing the parking requirement that has been articulated by the Village staff to support this amendment and therefore the Village Council should reject adoption of this proposed amendment."

Village Council did not reject the amendment but did make the effective date Oct. 1, 2026 on unanimous approval.

"That means any hotel application that comes in before that date will be reviewed with the less restrictive parking," Gibbs said.

Zoning requests for more hotels

Public information meetings – where no votes are made – on two hotel zoning requests are on the review board's Dec. 12 agenda.

Estero Storage LLC is asking for a zoning amendment to replace assisted living facility/74,766 square feet of commercial with 110,000 square feet of self storage, 120 hotel rooms and 18,000 square feet of commercial on a 7-acre vacant site east of the Estero Medical Center, off Arcos Avenue in the Plaza Del Sol Commercial Planned Development.

Home2 Suites, an extended-stay brand by Hilton, is asking for a zoning amendment for a 111-room hotel in Coconut Point Mall, south of the movie theater on the northwest corner of Via Coconut and Via Monte Carlo Way. The property is currently used as a parking lot.

If approved, "they'll get the bonus of a little bit less parking," Gibbs said. "The one advantage, though, of those cases in particular (Miromar and Coconut Point) is being in parking lots, you've got a large amount of parking."

More: Estero planning board approves new hotel construction in village

More: Estero approves zoning for hotel at Miromar Outlets

This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News: Estero hotel parking affected by hurricanes, state legislation