Three candidates who have pushed back against oversized redevelopment on Fort Myers Beach appeared headed to victory Tuesday night, claiming all three open seats on the Town Council. Incumbent Rebecca Link, former mayor Anita Cereceda and community activist Tom Brady were the apparent winners, though the results still needed to be made official.
According to The News-Press, Local Planning Agency member Edward Schoonover was headed for a loss, with about 16% of the vote received and well behind the other three contenders. A fourth name, former council member John McLean, remained on the ballot despite withdrawing from the race, and votes cast for him did not count, the paper reported. Lee County's election-results page listed Fort Myers Beach's six town charter amendments alongside the council race, and that site noted it was last updated at 9:11:07 p.m. Tuesday, according to enr.electionsfl.org.
A Four-Way Contest Narrows to Three
The field had been set since at least early October, when a forum covered by Fort Myers Beach Talk identified Cereceda, Schoonover, Link and Brady as the candidates vying for three open council seats. A preview of the race from Gulfshore Business described Cereceda as a longtime public servant, island resident and business owner who now serves on the town's Local Planning Agency.
Tuesday's apparent outcome continues a pattern from last year's recall election, when Link was the top vote-getter in a contest that returned her to the dais and Brady also ran. In that November 2025 election, Link received 1,052 votes to replace Karen Woodson, and Brady received 1,042 votes to replace John King, per the same Fort Myers Beach Talk account of that race. The 2025 contest drew 1,652 total ballots, and the Lee County Supervisor of Elections told WINK News turnout was almost 50 percent, saying, “but almost 50% turnout, I was kind of surprised myself.”
Development Fights Defined the Campaign
Redevelopment was the dominant issue heading into Tuesday, with the sharper differences emerging over density, height, redevelopment incentives and how strictly town leaders should adhere to the Comprehensive Plan, the News-Press reported. Brady, who led the opposition group Protect FMB as its president, argued the town should draw a firm line at development exceeding established limits unless there is “clear, measurable, perpetual and enforceable public benefit,” according to the same report.
Link struck a similar note on where redevelopment should stop. “I'm not interested in stopping redevelopment. I want good redevelopment: The line is when substantially more height, density or intensity is requested,” she told the outlet, framing her position around affordability for residents and small businesses.
A Town Still Sorting Out Its Last Recall
The island's political landscape has been unsettled since the 2025 recall effort that removed Woodson from the council and produced a contested outcome for King. A Lee County judge found one of three allegations against King legally insufficient to support a recall and stayed those results pending an appellate court ruling, Fort Myers Beach Talk reported at the time. King and Woodson had faced allegations of accepting unreported gifts and other charges, which both denied.
Cereceda, who was the town's first mayor when Fort Myers Beach incorporated in 1996 following a 1995 election, helped form the town's first Comprehensive Plan and served on the council through 2000 after being elected twice, then again as mayor and councilmember from 2014 to 2020, before term limits forced her out under the three-year terms then in place. Voters later extended council terms to four years in 2020. As a Local Planning Agency member, she must relinquish that seat now that she has won a council spot, and she previously voted against the Seagate project and the 15-story London Bay redevelopment of the former Outrigger Beach Resort, while supporting the Arches Bayfront hotel redevelopment at Moss Marina and the One Particular Harbour hotel project by TPI — both of which drew opposition from neighbors.
Protect FMB, the group Brady led, had sought to reverse the council's 2024 approval of the 17-story Seagate Development Group condominium tower but lost that legal challenge. Cereceda had contributed financially to the group, and some people, including Woodson, had called for her to resign her Local Planning Agency chair seat over the association — though she held onto it until Tuesday's election results.
Link, for her part, voted in favor of One Particular Harbour next to The Whale at the former Silver Sands Resort, while London Bay has separately pursued a Live Local Act workforce-housing proposal seeking to bypass full council review — a proposal on which councilmembers could still weigh in if legal challenges develop.
Once seated, Brady, Cereceda and Link will join Mayor Dan Allers and Vice Mayor Scott Safford on the council, according to Fort Myers Beach Talk. They take the seats of King and McLean, neither of whom sought re-election. McLean had been appointed to the council in February to replace Jim Atterholt after his resignation, while King was first elected in 2022 and survived a recall effort the prior year after a judge invalidated the petitions filed against him.
