City furious over painting of historic building in downtown Fort Myers

People are upset over the painting of the Richards Building in downtown Fort Myers.

Leaders in the City of Fort Myers spoke about the changes to the building and want to look into how and why the Richards Building ended up like this. The building is being painted with a fresh coat of white paint.

The city said the work was done despite a stop-work order.

That stop-work order was issued Friday, and even Mayor Kevin Anderson said the first time he realized it had been violated was when he saw a picture of the building on Facebook the next day.

Now, what happens next is left up to the Historic Preservation Commission, but city officials said they want to know why the stop-work order was ignored.

For some, this white paint being put over this 101-year-old building really boils down to history. For Councilman Liston Bochette, it actually boils down to protocol.

“I’m not familiar with a stop work order ever being violated. I know they go out from time to time, but they’re usually quite respectful, so my question is, was it negligence? Or was it malicious?” Bochette said.

He said that it’s an act of disrespect, but he wonders if it was intentional or not.

It’s a question city officials hope to answer through a series of meetings after a stop work order was put in on Friday, but ignored and still worked on the next day, even catching the city’s own mayor off guard until he saw our story on it.

The building is historic, so the Historic Preservation Commission will decide what happens next to the building, but city officials will have some say in what happens if it comes to light that the business owner violated their stop work order.

“I don’t necessarily like the thought of a historic building being altered to that extent, but if the HPC feels like it’s appropriate, then I have no problem with it,” Mayor Anderson said.

“They’ve been very lenient in the past, but this might be the straw that breaks their back and says that, from now forward, we’re applying the rules as the rules,” Bochette said.

What happens next is the owners will go before the HPC, and they’ll either approve the changes or not.

Then, they’ll make a recommendation to code enforcement. If they’re in violation, they will be fined. Mayor Anderson said it can be a fine per day.

Councilman Bochette said there’s a second part to this, and that’s if they are in violation, it could be considered punishable.