Fort Myers making plans to improve the yacht basin but some residents aren’t on board

Small businesses or bigger shops and amenities are the battles happening at the yacht basin in downtown Fort Myers. The city wants to lease out the area, but not everyone is on board with the idea.

A business owner along the yacht basin said she is afraid she’ll get the boot if this plan is approved.

Bill Westberry moved from a 6,000-square-foot home in Texas to a 600-square-foot boat in the Fort Myers Yacht Basin.

“We like the marina life, we like our neighbors, we have something in common,” said Westberry.

They all wake up surrounded by water, and they share a dislike of the City of Fort Myers looking to have a developer upgrade the yacht basin.

“Rebuild the yacht basin, don’t replace it. That’s our motto,” said Westberry.

The city is looking at five proposals, including shops and restaurants, floating docks, more parking, and improved security.

It is a plan that sounds great to everyone except people who live or work in and around the basin.

“My thought is that the city owns an amazing piece of property here and for them to think about turning it over to developers makes my heart go bad,” said Marcia Schwalm, owner of Rumors Hair Salon.

Schwalm and Westberry agree the yacht basin needs some improvements.

“But the city, they have purposely tried to run this thing down so they could sell the city council how badly managed it is and get one of their developers in here to take the whole construction operations over, and they can wash their hands of it,” said Westberry.

That is one man’s opinion, though. The city said the improvements would include a substantial number of liveaboard slips, but the fear is it will come at a considerable cost increase.

WINK News asked Westberry what he would do if the cost did go up. “I don’t know. A lot of people are real nervous,” said Westberry.

To ease those nerves, the city will hold an informational meeting tomorrow at 6:00 p.m.

Some liveaboard residents also believe a substantial environmental concern lies below the surface. They believe under the surface of the water are toxins and chemicals that have sat stagnant for years.

Their fear is if it’s churned up or dredged out, it will send toxins all the way down the Caloosahatchee, doing all kinds of damage.

WINK News reached out to the department of environmental protection to confirm what the people here believe. They said they are looking into those claims.

One man who lives in the basin said he worked in oil and gas construction most of his life. He believes he’s got a pretty good idea of how much damage stirring up this water would cause.

“The soil below this marina is most likely saturated with toxins. Old crankcase soil that was dumped overboard back years ago, coolant, benzene, you name it. And once they start dredging this marina out, that stuff is going to drift downstream and poison fish, mammals, seagrass and really hurt the fishing,” said Westberry.