Sanibel to celebrate its Independence Day
It’s the Big Four-Oh.
Sanibel in November celebrates Independence Day, its fortieth anniversary as an incorporated city, one of a handful in Lee County. Estero voters on Nov. 4 will decide whether to incorporate and become the Village of Estero. Elected officials only in Fort Myers, Fort Myers Beach and Cape Coral set the rules and taxation guidelines for their towns.
And, of course, in Sanibel.
Islanders will recognize the milestone with an Election Day celebration at City Hall. The Nov. 4 reception is being hosted by the Sanibel Historical Preservation Committee. Snacks will be available at the 8 a.m. event. Sanibel was incorporated by a vote of its registered citizenry, which officials said totaled less than 3,000 in 1974. There are some 6,500 today.
“Being mayor was one of the most meaningful experiences of my life,” said Nola Theiss, one of Sanibel’s many former mayors. “What I learned about community involvement has served me well in my current nonprofit work. I highly recommend and encourage more people to open themselves up to the experience of serving on City Council.”
Before incorporation in 1974, Sanibel was under the tight control of Lee County, former and current officials said. One community authority, in fact, said Lee County and the state envisioned Sanibel becoming a Little Miami, with highrises dotting the coastlines, a population slated for some 90,000. A housing project across from the Bailey’s General Store was rumored to include some 1,400 new homes. And a former Florida governor is rumored to have stood in the way of the city annexing itself, refusing to sign off on incorporation.
Sanibel’s decision to limit real and scuttlebutt development and decide its own destiny came with an overwhelming “yes” vote in November 1974.
“The best thing to ever happen to Sanibel was 1974,” said Alex Werner, with the island’s Historical Preservation Committee, the group hosting the celebration. “Since then, it has been peace and quiet and harmony.”
Former island mayor and current councilman Marty Harrity credits Sanibel’s visionaries of the 1960s and ’70s for powering through an amicable split with Lee County. Harrity is quick to acknowledge the city’s first mayor, Porter Goss, with leading the independence campaign.
“If it wasn’t for (people) like him,” Harrity said of Goss, “God knows what Sanibel would look like today. They are the true Founding Fathers. I try to live by the ideals they initiated.”
On Sanibel’s first few months as a city, former mayor Porter Goss said: “Of course, at the beginning, there was little to none ‘professional staff’ and, as mayor, I was fully involved all day, every day finding and hiring staff, setting up a City Hall, looking for funds, organizing council agendas and doing countless other chores. I was also spending a lot of time with lawyers because there were ongoing attempts to nullify the whole incorporation of the city.
“What stands out in my memory is the extraordinary citizen involvement in the efforts to set up the city to achieve fair, workable answers to the many questions before us. I think just about everybody was on one committee or another — and we had committees galore. It was an amazing display of public participation working constructively and democratically. We did not achieve total harmony, but we achieved noteworthy success.”
Along with independence, islanders also envisioned their community as a sanctuary, meaning co-existence with the abundant wildlife that ranged Sanibel for centuries. Using grants, donations and tax dollars, Sanibel today is about 70 percent undeveloped. Federal authorities also consolidated thousands of acres in the J.N. “Ding” Darling National Wildlife Refuge. Mr. Darling in the 1960s was instrumental in federal funding for wildlife refuges. Sanibel also prohibits and limits certain lighting; there are no traffic stops and signage is restricted. Visitors are likely to bump into a tree at night with so little illumination. Which is exactly what was envisioned as Sanibel evolved, former Mayor Mark Westall said.
The city’s greatest challenge down the road may be outside voter control, Westall said. As earth temperatures continue to rise, Sanibel shorelines will begin to flood, crowding out the serenity of beach living, he said.
“We are after all,” said Westall, a naturalist and longtime guide, “just an overgrown sandbar.”