Yet when the couple submitted plans to build a new home – plans they have spent about $50,000 on to build the home around the garage, the town and its community development director Steve Poposki notified them of the issue with the garage.

The town had issued permits for Loughery to replace the garage door and install electricity at an estimated $20,000 cost to the couple after Hurricane Ian with the permit for the demolition of their home stating the garage would remain intact. Loughery said all of this could have been avoided had the town not labeled the garage laterally-attached and instead considered it detached or an accessory structure. Loughery has been protesting a decision by town staff and the state Division of Emergency Management which would require him to tear down his 30-feet high garage that survived Hurricane Ian intact.Ī bureaucratic decision over whether the garage was considered attached or not to the home has put the Lougherys in a situation where they are being told to essentially tear down their $100,000 garage that survived Hurricane Ian to rebuild it to new codes after new floodplain maps drawn by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).īut Mr. The protest at Rick and Amy Loughery’s garage on Estero Boulevard in mid-island Fort Myers Beach continued into its sixth day Monday where Mr.

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