FEMA villages spark skepticism from neighboring businesses in Charlotte County

PORT CHARLOTT, Florida. Charlotte County Commissioners unanimously agreed to return FEMA villages for tenants displaced by Hurricane Ian.

Both sites are located at:

1. 4135 Kings Highway
2. 6572 Kewitt Boulevard

The site at Kings Highway can accommodate about 180 trailers, and another location at Kewitt Boulevard can accommodate about 55 trailers, according to county officials.

Charlotte County leaders have said more than 500 families are eligible to participate in this project.

On Wednesday, across the street from the Kings Highway location, sits Townsend Glass and his owner, Gene Townsend.

“I’m not… very happy,” Townsend said.

Townsend’s dissatisfaction stemmed not from the general condition of the FEMA trailer camp, but from the county’s last run into the camps since Hurricane Charley in 2004.

“After Charlie, everyone went here for drugs, that’s what worries me,” Townsend said.

Anxiety. Charlotte County Planning and Zoning Officer Sean Cullinan didn’t specifically address, but he raised past safety concerns during a recent meeting of project approval commissioners.

“It was the last option that was always there after their issues with Charlie,” Callinan said.

However, this option, according to Cullinan, will help accommodate more than 500 families whose apartments were destroyed by Ian.

Cullinan told the commissioners that both sites were equipped to handle FEMA trailers.

“The beautiful part about both of them is that they already have the infrastructure available to them,” Cullinan said.

Townsend said past experiences combined with people living in tents nearby led him to add to his current security infrastructure.

“There are a few items that go missing sometimes, so we had to purchase a camera system. Now we are going to install a better camera system,” Townsend said.

On Thursday, a FEMA spokesperson Fox 4 spoke to was unable to provide a timeline for when those trailers would start rolling out.

Townsend told Fox 4 that as long as it really helps people in his community, he doesn’t mind.

“I don’t have a problem with that. Can you control it? Yes? Okay, then I don’t mind,” Townsend said.