The focus of the Greater Pine Island Civic Association’s January general meeting was an update from the zoning committee on pending projects, as well as an invitation to the general public attending the meeting about topics that could possibly be discussed in the future.

GPICA board president Chris Blum Began by inviting members to share these ideas with the group.

“We’re gonna throw some ideas around of maybe what we want to see in 2026 — who do we want to see? Who do we want to hear from? If we can think about that, before we get to that and have some ideas to share,” Blum said.

GPICA board secretary Steve Eldredge shared with members that he last shared a Pine Island/Matlacha development and zoning update in November 2025. Since that meeting, he said, a few people came forward to help him do the research, which he admits is a great deal of work. With the help of others, the team was able to get to the bottom of many projects, that may have been overlooked or miscalculated otherwise.

“This is an update, it’s a work in progress, I’m sure a year from now we’re gonna be able to say, ‘hey, we’re even better at this,’ but the truth is, at this stage of the game we’ve made good progress in the past couple of months,” Eldredge said.

He gave an overview on the Orchid Cove Multi-Family project currently undergoing the construction of 94 low-rise dwellings in 13 six-unit commercial buildings and four four-unit commercial buildings.

“It’s been a long time since anyone knew anything about that, so I just put that in there in November to kind of bring everybody up to speed,” Eldredge said.

The next update was on Bokeelia Pointe, formerly known as Bokeelia Harbor Resort. A new Development Order (DO) was issued for this property in 2024, he said. This project includes single phase construction of infrastructure to support a 48-unit mobile home park with direct access to Main Street.

“This development order came in 2024…at this stage of the game it’s just trying to keep everybody kind of up to speed in terms of what’s going on because there’s no opposition that can be developed,” Eldredge said.

He then updated members on Atlas Lakes in St. James City, which he said is 111 single-family lots, which is part of Terra Nova Land Development. This venture, he said, is coming soon. It’s important to keep an eye on the project as it moves forward.

“We didn’t even know who the developer was until the other day…now we have a name and a face, in theory,” Eldredge said.

Pine Island Open Storage, located at 5361 Pine Island Road, in Bokeelia, has been approved for the single phase construction of infrastructure to support an 80,000-square-foot outdoor storage use for boats and RVs with direct access to Pine Island Road.

“Nothing is really going on there, except a development order has been issued,” Eldredge said.

Terra Blue Aquaculture Farms, located at 10289 Stringfellow Road in St. James City, has been approved and is constructing effluent management ponds. This is a U.S.-based company that designs and builds land-based sustainable fish farms. The company focuses on sustainable fish farming. This project has been an active venture since, at least, early 2020.

“These people have plans for what looks like 11 ponds…I followed the trail for about two weeks trying to get them to come out and just talk to us and tell us what they’re doing…They’ve got a consultant on staff here in Fort Myers and I talked to him and said we’d like them to come out and speak. I think they’re from Madison, Wisconsin, if I’m not mistaken and that’s the last I heard,” Eldredge said.

Other items included Pine Island Fire Department Station #2 in St. James City; Way Assembly of God, located at 5990 Cubles Drive, Bokeelia; and the Upper Captive Carriage Club, located at 9101 Stringfellow Road, St. James City

” I can’t quite figure it out. It looks like everything has been agreed to between the hearing examiner and the people that want to do it — the Wainwrights but the hearing examiner still hasn’t issued the final okee-dokee,” Eldredge said.

Another topic was the Bokeelia Tower located at 7645 Barrancas Avenue in Bokeelia. A public hearing has been scheduled for this project on March 11, 2026 at 9 a.m.

“I will have quite a few people out there,” Eldredge said, regarding the public hearing.

Blum circled back to her invitation at the beginning of the meeting, asking if anyone had an idea for future speakers at the GPICA meetings. She shared that Parks and Recreation is scheduled for the February general meeting

To watch and or listen to this meeting in its entirety, visit the GPICA Facebook page

The next GPICA general monthly meeting will be at First Baptist Church 5363 Avenue D, Bokeelia, Tuesday, Feb. 3, at 6:30 p.m.

To reach PAULETTE LeBLANC / pleblanc@breezenewspapers.com, please email