We should know before the end of this month how a State Administrative Law Judge rules regarding whether or not La Ola can stay in Times Square. But this is a long way from over. The town wants restaurant owner Thomas Houghton to pack up his shipping containers and get gone ASAP. Houghton wants to stay in Times Square as long as he can.
A hearing was held Tuesday before Administrative Law Judge John Van Lannighan. Lannighan was zoomed in from Tallahassee to the Town Hall trailers. In attendance were town attorney Nancy Stuparich and Code Compliance Manager Tom Yozzo representing Fort Myers Beach and Houghton, property owner Chris Primeau and their attorney Amy Thibaut representing La Ola.
FEMA had given the town until November 18, 2024 to start the process of following their own code to remove containers and conex boxes (in addition to other issues the town had to fix) or face losing their 25% flood insurance discount. Despite working with FEMA to accomplish tasks FEMA wanted done, the discount was eventually lost and the town was put into a 2-year probationary period…