City of Fort Myers voters approved a charter amendment Tuesday banning any new junk yards or the expansion of any current junk yards or recycling centers.
The decision comes months after the city let one of these facilities expand. Community activists protested that expansion. They said the city already has too many junkyards - all in districts with mostly minority residents.
Fort Myers has 14 junkyards and recycling centers in its city limits.
The amendment says if someone wants to create one more or expand their current junkyard or recycling center, they’re going to have to get voter approval.
Community activist Willie Green is behind the amendment. He said the amendment means voters are taking power out of politicians’ hands and into their own.
“It was a vote for the people and when the people speak and are successful and get politicians and the government to listen to them then we all are winners,” he said.
City attorney Grant Alley recommended the city file a lawsuit in August so a court could decide if the amendment is legal.
He said that way they could see if the amendment was violating rights.
“Taking an extreme, if there was a… citizen’s referendum or petition that said, ‘No new commercial development and a ban for all commercial development,’ and that passed, it would be a violation of individual property rights,” he said.
A call to the attorney’s office was not returned.
The city also recently placed a moratorium on its junkyard codes to give it time to work out conflicting language in its laws.
To watch a short video about this summer's controversial junkyard expansion, skip to 12:13 below:
