Cape faces Sunset wrath

Towers' residents demand repairs


 

Article Courtesy of NEWS-PRESS
By MELANIE PAYNE

Published December 29, 2004

 

Dozens of angry Sunset Towers Condominium residents confronted Cape Coral city officials Monday, accusing them of conspiring with developers and trying to force elderly residents from their hurricane-damaged homes.

Amid jeers, hisses and outbursts of name-calling, city officials defended their actions as concern for the residents' health and safety.

 

But the 25-person, mostly elderly, crowd wasn't buying it. One resident pointed a finger inches from a city official's nose and called him a liar. Another urged a city council member to "tell the truth."

Many in the crowd claim that the city is citing health and safety to cover up its real motivation for delaying the repairs to their buildings: development and tax dollars.

The homeowners were
forced to move after the roofs on the two buildings blew off during Hurricane

Ben Cotroneo, right, a building official with the city of Cape Coral, takes feedback from angry Sunset Towers residents, including Pat Davis, 64, center, Tony Lucibello, left, and Bonnie Croker, 75, second from left, on Monday during an impromptu meeting at the towers. Residents are upset because they say the city is dragging its feet on reconstruction. The towers were damaged by Hurricane Charley.

Charley on Aug. 13 and the city deemed the towers unsafe and uninhabitable.

Residents say the city has thwarted their efforts to rebuild by claiming that the repair costs exceed 50 percent of the value of the 35-year-old buildings, thereby triggering requirements for updated fire safety, environmental and handicap accessibility codes.

Officials "have plans for development of downtown Cape Coral and I don't think that really we're part of those plans," said George Rea, whose wife Dorothy is president of the condominium association.

"This is a delaying tactic," Bonnie Croker said. Croker, 75, said the city knows that the mostly elderly residents on fixed incomes will have no choice but to sell out cheap if they keep delaying the start of the repairs.

For almost five months, residents have continued to pay mortgages, condo fees and other expenses in addition to current living expenses, residents said.

"We're running out of money and we're running out of patience," said Virginia Blair, a 78-year-old widow, who has lived in the Sunset Towers for 20 years.

Councilwoman Gloria Tate and Community Development Director Carl Schwing denied that the city is in cahoots with Wisconsin-based VK Development, which owns the land west of the towers and is planning a $150 million residential-commercial development there.

VK Development representatives also denied they have their sights set on the towers.

"We're going ahead with phase I of the development," said Joe Mazurkiewicz, a consultant for VK Development. Those plans consist of 200 condominium units and between 75,000 and 95,000 square feet of retail shops and do not include the Sunset Towers land, Mazurkiewicz said.

"We never contemplated taking Sunset Towers. VK's interest only occurred after (Hurricane) Charley. Absent Charley ripping the place apart they never would have heard from us."

VK offered residents of the 56-unit towers $200,000 each, after the hurricane, but records indicate that VK had earlier involvement with the aging condominium complex.

County records show that in May 2003, Vincent Kuttemperoor, the president of VK Development, purchased five Sunset Towers units, paying between $105,000 and $145,000, before the condo association started requiring owners to live in the units — quashing a piecemeal takeover of the building. The developer also paid $6 million in September for almost all the land between Pine Tree Court and the towers, county land records show.

Schwing and building official Ben Cotroneo explained that the city is following the law, not intentionally imposing burdensome and unfair regulations. Toilets and shower heads, for example, need to be replaced with water-conserving models, and the elevators aren't big enough for people in wheelchairs or for the paramedics to take someone out in a gurney.

"I've been taken out in a gurney five or six times," said Mildred Miller, 85. Miller, who has heart problems, is currently living in one room at an assisted living facility because she can't move back into her two-bedroom, two-bath home at Sunset Towers.

"I'm a widow and we lost our only son. I'm completely alone and I want to get back here," Miller said.

Others complain that the battle is taking a toll on their health. One woman, walking away from the meeting, collapsed and was treated by paramedics.

Resident Tony Lucibello, who was in a wheelchair, said he has no problem using the elevator and threatened to take the city to court if they tried to use the Americans With Disabilities Act as a reason to deny the rehabilitation of the towers.

"I've sued a lot of people in town about making their buildings accessible, but the ADA doesn't apply to condominiums," Lucibello said. "The inspector is trying to raise our rebuilding costs."

If repairs cost more than 50 percent of the value of the building, the ground floor must be raised to federal minimum flood elevations determined long after the towers were built. The rule also requires costly updates to current building codes.

Cotroneo said that the costs to rebuild exceeded the 50 percent value of the building and therefore the updated code applied. However, an engineer's report puts the cost to repair Sunset's 56 units at about $3.5 million. Based on the $200,000 per unit offer from VK, or $11.2 million for the two buildings, the repair bill is only about 31 percent of the value. That's far below the threshold.

And that's why residents are accusing the Cape of siding with the developer.

It all comes down to money, said Sunset Tower resident Pat Davis, 64.

"They don't want us here, we're all homesteaders," Davis said, referring to the lower taxes residents pay. "Think of all the taxes the city gets if we're not here and the developer gets $600,000 a unit.