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A speaker addresses Lee County commissioners Aug. 19 during a public hearing on proposed changes to development rules for southeast Lee. Commissioners advanced the plan, with another public hearing required before potential adoption.<\/p>\n
Evan Williams<\/p>\n
Lee County commissioners advanced new development guidelines for southeast Lee at a public hearing Aug. 19, loosening decades-old restrictions while attempting to keep the area\u2019s original conservation goals intact.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The changes to the Southeast Lee Community Plan would allow greater flexibility for commercial and residential development in an area that includes critical wellfields, Florida panther habitat and key mining resources.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lee officials report that the changes were initially created to accommodate 11 development applications in the Density Reduction\/Groundwater Resource area, or DR\/GR, submitted between 2023 and 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Commissioners want to move forward with the applications, arguing that the current DR\/GR restrictions are hampering growth. Commissioners, county planners and developers also argue that new commercial and industrial space is needed to support the area\u2019s growing population, including in Lehigh Acres and developments such as Kingston.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt looks like we\u2019ve been delaying the review of these applications, some of them for as much as three years,\u201d said Commissioner David Mulicka, adding, \u201cIt doesn\u2019t look like anything\u2019s on the fast track.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The county created the DR\/GR in 1989, restricting development on about 20% of county land to rein in urban sprawl and protect natural resources. Pressured by state growth management policies, officials drew boundaries around the restricted area and imposed strict limits on development.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Aside from agriculture and mining, the DR\/GR has been largely restricted from commercial development, with a total of 300,000 square feet allowed throughout the entire area. Residential construction is generally limited to one dwelling unit per 10 acres.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The new plan would make significant changes to both.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It creates a commercial or nonresidential land-use category called Preservation and Innovation, removing existing restrictions on uses and square footage. Instead, the plan would allow \u201ca variety\u201d of commercial, industrial and office uses. It would limit each development to a maximum 0.25 floor-area ratio.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The new rules also create a residential land-use category called Conservation Community that would allow up to 1.15 units per acre and permit some nonresidential uses.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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A Lee County map shows the Southeast Lee Community Plan area, where officials are proposing new rules that would allow greater flexibility for commercial and residential development.<\/p>\n
Lee County government<\/p>\n
At the same time, the plan purports to keep the DR\/GR\u2019s original preservation goals intact \u2014 or even improve the environment by requiring developers to take steps such as restoring flow ways.\u00a0<\/p>\n
County planners say development would remain concentrated in limited areas.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBasically, we\u2019re expecting development from this to really occur along the major corridors and not impact most of the other areas in southeast Lee,\u201d said Lee County Principal Planner Katherine Burgess.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Environmental advocates are skeptical that the plan\u2019s preservation goals are realistic.\u00a0<\/p>\n
At the Aug. 19 hearing and a previous public meeting in July, they argued that the new guidelines include vague protections and give officials too much flexibility to bend the rules.\u00a0<\/p>\n
They also said too little has been done to educate the public about what many consider a \u201csweeping\u201d set of new rules for an area containing irreplaceable natural resources.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a broad rewrite of the Southeast Lee County Plan affecting tens of thousands of acres and altering the regulatory framework for future growth in one of Lee County\u2019s most environmentally sensitive areas,\u201d said conservation advocate James Kennedy.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Speakers asked commissioners to delay adopting the changes to allow further public discussion and research.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lehigh resident Derek Felder, who spoke on behalf of Unite Lehigh, asked the county to investigate further how to meet Lehigh\u2019s infrastructure needs while preserving natural resources.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe believe those realities can and should be planned together,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The DR\/GR includes wellfields that are a crucial part of the public water supply. It also consists, in large part, of primary and secondary Florida panther habitat. The area also includes key mining resources.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Over the years, some development has been permitted within the DR\/GR, including Florida Gulf Coast University and Southwest Florida International Airport.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Lee County commissioners hear a presentation Aug. 19 on proposed changes to the Southeast Lee Community Plan. The changes would loosen development restrictions while maintaining conservation requirements in the environmentally sensitive area.<\/p>\n
Evan Williams<\/p>\n
More recently, mixed-use communities, such as Kingston, are being developed in parts of the DR\/GR through lawsuit settlements.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Yet large parts of the area remain preserved. Lee County planning staff assured commissioners and the public that even with the new guidelines, they will remain that way.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Commission Chair Cecil Pendergrass said the changes are intended in part to prevent development applications from becoming stalled under the existing framework.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are now trying to resolve this and correct some issues here, so this doesn\u2019t happen in the future,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lee\u2019s Local Planning Agency also recommended at a July 27 public hearing that the county adopt the plan. The commissioner-appointed panel includes developers and real estate professionals.\u00a0<\/p>\n
County commissioners are set to hold one more public hearing, at a time to be determined, to potentially adopt the new development guidelines. All four commissioners present at the Aug. 19 meeting said they support the plan.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A speaker addresses Lee County commissioners Aug. 19 during a public hearing on proposed changes to development rules…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":377325,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210,891,2152,151858,151859,356],"class_list":["post-377324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news","tag-conservation","tag-development","tag-dr-gr","tag-florida-panther-habitat","tag-lee-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=377324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377324\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/377325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=377324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=377324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}