Walk any Bonita Springs neighborhood in late May and the question is visible everywhere: which houses are getting their shutters out of the garage, and which homes never appear to need them because the glass itself is rated. The shutters-or-impact-glass decision is one of the bigger spending choices a coastal homeowner makes, and the honest answer is that neither option is universally right. What is right is the option that fits the openings you have, the hours you are willing to spend on deploy days, and the way long you plan to stay in the house.
What the code expects
Start with the requirement, because it frames everything else. The Florida Building Code requires protection of glazed openings in designated wind-borne debris regions, which is a way of mapping the areas most exposed to hurricane-level wind and its debris. The Florida Building Code overview published by the Florida Building Commission describes the standard: in these areas, glazed openings are protected by shutters or by impact-resistant glass, and coastal Lee County — including all of Bonita Springs — sits in the designated region.
Two consequences follow. New construction and replacement windows in the region are installed with opening protection as a matter of permit. And older homes retrofitting opening protection are doing the same work the code would demand at the next reroof-and-replace cycle, just on their own timeline.
The debris standard, briefly
The code’s impact test is about a piece of lumber flying at hurricane speeds. Shutters and impact windows both carry ratings against that standard, and Florida’s hurricane retrofit guide explains the debris impact standards the state uses. For the homeowner, the takeaway is simple: a rated shutter and a rated window address the same hazard. The difference is not protection quality; it is how and when the protection is there.
How they compare in practice
Shutters, in their favor: they cost less per opening for most protection levels, they can move to the next house with you when they fit, they let you choose when to batten down, and metal panels store flat for decades. Against them: they demand real labor on deploy days — that means ladders, muscle, and time you may not have when a system is two days out; panels scratch paint and pinch fingers; and hurricane clips for a whole house is a job measured in hours per window for a first-timer.
Impact glass, in its favor: it is protection that never takes a sick day. You do not deploy anything, guests do not need to be taught anything, and the day before landfall you can spend the hours on other things. It also blocks UV, quiets traffic noise, and stays a year-round upgrade rather than a garage full of hardware. Against it: the upfront cost per opening is high, the rating is fixed to the unit (so a cracked or failed unit is a real outage), and like shutters it requires permitted installation — which means doing it once, correctly.
The middle path and mixed houses
Most Bonita Springs homes end up mixed. Impact glass on the hard-to-reach or decorative openings and the ones you would rather never think about; shutters on the big ground-floor openings and the garage door, where deploy effort is manageable and shutter cost per square foot looks sensible. There is no rule against owning both, and the wind-mitigation inspection reads mixed homes just fine, crediting what is protected.
Permits matter in whichever direction you go: both shutters and impact units are permit work in the city, and the permit file is part of what a later buyer reads when they run their own due diligence. Document the installation the same way you would a roof — see how the paperwork keeps an aging roof insurable — and the work keeps paying beyond the next storm.