Volume 2, Number 9
Issued January 2003
Edited by ECCO--the Estero Concerned
Citizens Organization
For further information, to provide
information or to add names to our mailing list,
Email Don Eslick at
doneslick@worldnet.att.net or call him at 949-4050
·
February Opportunities for Citizen
Participation In Protecting Estero's Quality of Life
|
Date |
Time |
Event |
Location |
|
Monday, Feb. 4th |
9:30 a. m. |
BOCC Consideration of
Corkscrew Road and Miramar Boulevard name change and
signage. |
County Commission Chambers,
2120 Main Street, 2nd Floor, Ft. Myers |
|
Tuesday, Feb. 4th |
6 p.m. |
Roadway Landscape Advisory
Committee Meeting |
County Community Development
Building, Conference Room 3A, 1500 Monroe Street, Ft. Myers |
|
Monday, Feb. 10th |
2 p.m. |
Estero Civic Association
Meeting-- Ron Dillon, Oakbrook Properties is the speaker
|
Fountain Lakes Clubhouse |
|
Monday, Feb. 10th |
4:00 p.m. |
Estero Community Planning
Panel Meeting |
Marsh Landing Clubhouse |
|
Tuesday, Feb. 11th |
4:30 p.m. |
Estero Design Review
Committee |
Reed Hall, 2nd
Floor FGCU |
|
Thursday, Feb. 13th |
2 p.m. |
Estero Council of Community
Leaders Meeting. |
Marsh Landing Clubhouse |
|
Thursday, Feb. 20th |
5 p.m. |
CR 951 Public Workshop |
Three Oaks University
Center, 20991 Three Oaks Parkway |
|
Friday, Feb 21st |
2 p.m. |
Urban Land Institute Meeting
Featuring the Award Winning Estero Community Plan-- |
Spanish Wells Country Club |
|
Thursday, Feb. 20th |
1:30 p.m. |
Estero Palms Zoning
Hearing--this residential project is located just west of
River Ranch Road & just south of Corkscrew Road. |
County Community Development
Building, 3rd Floor, 1500 Monroe Street, Ft.
Myers |
|
Thursday, Feb. 27th |
5:30 p.m. |
Estero Chamber of Commerce
Business After Hours |
The Plaza at Bonita Bay
Behind the Promenade |
On Friday, February 21st,
the Southwest Florida chapter of the ULI will present a program on
"Collaborative Community Planning and Development" that use the
Estero experience to educate developers and other real estate
professional about community plans and there potential benefits to
other Florida communities. Featured speakers are Neal Noethlich,
Chairman of the Estero Community Planning Panel; Dan DeLisi, VP of
Planning of Barraco & Associates and Ron Dillon, Vice President of
Operations for Oakbrook Properties, the developers of
Coconut Point.
The program is scheduled for 2 to 5 p.m. followed by a cash bar
until 6 p.m. at the Spanish Wells Country Club in Bonita Springs. ULI has offered Estero residents a reduce fee of $10. Advance
registration is required prior to February 17th. Please
call 800-321-5011 to register for the program.
The ECCO Council of Community Leaders was formed last year to
represent the Estero community regarding the potential impact of the
zoning of the Coconut Point Town Center. At that time the council
consisted of the 13 residential communities surrounding this 483
acre site plus the Estero Civic Association, the Estero Chamber of
Commerce, the Estero Fire Rescue District and ECCO. After this
property was properly zoned in October, it was decided that this
group of community leaders should continue to meet and should be
expanded to include all Estero residential communities. The
Council's mission is to involve all Estero community leaders, and
through them all Estero residents, in a coordinated effort to
effectively manage the rapid growth of the Estero community and
prevent our being overrun with strip mall and box stores.
The Council meets monthly to
review all ongoing planning, zoning, infrastructure, appearance,
governance and other matters affecting the future of Estero. Until
now representatives of 24 residential communities have participated
in these meetings. ECCO has identified another 6 residential
communities that it would like to involve in its work, while four
residential communities are too new to be able to provide
representation.
On January 17th the
monthly meeting of ECCO's Council of Community Leaders discussed the
following issues:
Sarah
Clarke, project manager for Florida DOT, and Karl Vieth, HDR
Construction Control Corporation, indicated that the widening of US
41 from the north end of Old 41 to Corkscrew Road is about 16%
complete. As soon as the utility work on the medians has been
completed temporary turn lanes will be restored for some of the
communities and businesses along this route.
The State is working with
engineers hired by the Simon Corporation and Oakbrook Properties to
design additional turn lanes for the
Coconut Point Town Center so
that they can be constructed during the six-laning project. The
State plans to keep US 41 open to four lane traffic during daytime
hours throughout the project. The project is expected to be
completed in late 2004 or early 2005.
The state recently advanced
funding for median landscape installation of this segment by two
years. This will permit the landscaping to be installed in early
2005 as the widening is completed. Lee County and the City of Bonita
Springs are in the process of contracting with a landscape architect
to design the "core" landscaping-- sod and trees-- that will be
purchased with these funds.
Mrs. Clark indicated that FDOT is in process of contracting for the
design of this road segment, using about $1.7 million recently
advanced to the State by Lee
County. The roadway design is expected to be 60% complete in
mid-2004, at which time it would be possible for right-of-way
acquisition to begin if funding were available. Unfortunately, state
funds for right-of-way acquisition on this segment are now budgeted
in state fiscal year 2006-07, which begins in October 2006.
Estero's community organizations
and the citizens of Estero must begin now to convince the State to
accelerate right-of-way funding for this segment or to convince the
County to provide another two year loan to the state, this time in
the amount of $6 million, in order to eliminate or reduce the two
year delay on this last segment of US 41 between Ft. Myers and
Naples.
Finally FDOT has not budgeted any
money for construction of this segment in their five year capital
improvement plan. We will need to work with FDOT and the
Metropolitan Planning Organization to fund this vital project.
Communities along this road
segment should contact FDOT now to advise them that they want to
participate in the road alignment decisions that will be made during
the design phase that is just getting underway.
Barbara Akins of
Pelican Landing, Chairperson of the ECCO's Organizing Committee,
presented a report on the committee's efforts to define the
structure of the Council of Community Leaders, an important ECCO
advisory committee. The primary purposes of the Organizing Committee
are to define appropriate methods for community representation and
an effective program of communication development within each
residential community. The report recommends that each residential
community be represented by one primary contact person and an
alternate. These representatives shall be designated by the Board of
Directors of each residential community where such Board exists or
by neighborhood leaders where no formal community organization
exists. Each residential community and community organization would
have one vote on any matters requiring a vote.
The designated community contact
and the alternate will be responsible for:
- representing their residential community at the monthly meetings
of the ECCL
- informing
the leaders and/or community Board about all ECCL activities;
- using the
existing community communication systems to inform all community
residents about ECCL issues information and decisions;
- developing
a program to improve the community communication system so that
all residents of the community have an opportunity to know what
is going on in Estero;
- advising
all community residents when communication with our elected
officials is necessary to accomplish the gain their support for
needed Estero improvements.
Rep Carol Greene has requested a legal opinion, through the House
Committee that handles all incorporation matters, on the
enforceability of the two mile buffer zone around municipalities by
the affected municipality. The City of Bonita Springs recently
opposed Save Estero's incorporation effort on the basis that the
City wants to preserve its rights to annex some or all of the
property located in the two mile buffer area, which extends roughly
from the BonitaSprings northern boundary to
Williams Road. When the local legislative delegation met to consider
this matter there was considerable debate about the strength of this
statutory incorporation standard. Hopefully this opinion will
provide the Estero community and its organizations and the
legislative delegation with some guidance regarding future
incorporation strategy and decision-making.
In order to maintain the integrity
of the Estero community, the ECCP decided to prepare a power point
presentation to be used to inform Estero residents, old and new,
about Estero, its boundaries and communities; its growth management;
its successful planning and zoning efforts; the support it has
received from Lee County and its future governance options. Jim
Ramsburg, from Marsh Landing, is heading up this effort. The
presentation is expected to be ready for use at community meetings
within the next month.
Ron Dillon of Oakbrook
Properties presented the committee with letters signed by Oakbrook
Properties and the Simon Property Group committing those firms to
work with Estero's community organizations to implement the
agreement the two parties reached in October 2002 prior to the
property obtaining its zoning. In addition, Dillon indicated that
discussions with the County regarding the terms of a Development
Agreement for Coconut Point
were continuing. The Development
Agreement will specify when the developers must pay the County $14.7
million in road impact fees and how those funds may be used. These
funds have great potential for financing much needed Estero roadway
improvements like Sandy Lane, Three Oaks Parkway and the I-75 --
Corkscrew interchange. If all goes well Mr. Dillon plans to present
the tentative agreement to the ECCL meeting on February 13th.
Progress continues on the permitting for a new
Estero Fire Rescue
district firehouse to be located opposite the entrance to
Fountain
Lakes.
On January 28th the BOCC,
by a 3-2 vote, authorized County staff to work with Congressman
Porter Goss to obtain congressional approval for extending the
federal authority for local governments, like Lee County, to finance
U. S. Corp of Engineers permit reviewers in order to accelerate
approval of road and other public projects and to begin discussions
with the local Corp of Engineers office to establish the terms of an
agreement providing for the hiring of a reviewer for County
projects.
The Federal law, the Water
Resource Development Act (WRDA), authorizing local governments to
fund U. S. Corp of Engineer (COE) staff positions whose sole
responsibility is to review that government's selected public
projects requiring COE permits expires on September 30, 2003.
Unquestionably the Federal
government should be providing these services in a timely manner at
their expense. Just as surely they have consistently failed to do so
and the Federal budget now under consideration by Congress does not
contain funding for additional COE reviewer positions.
Each Corp permit review position
costs the sponsoring local government about $135,000 per year. On
the other hand the roadway construction delays caused by the Federal
permitting process are annually costing Lee County millions of
dollars. Recently COE permits delayed the construction of Alico Road
by two or more years. As a result of the delay the cost of this road
segment increased by $1 million -- and that does not address the
reduction in our quality of life resulting from the two additional
years of added congestion.
During 2002 the cost of the
Bonita Springs segment of Three Oaks Parkway between Terry Street
and Coconut Road increased by $10 million. Some of this increase was
caused by the City's decision to change the alignment of the road,
but a substantial part resulted from the increased right-of-way and
construction costs brought about by the two year delay caused by the
City of Bonita Springs taking over the alignment decision from the
County after incorporation.
Please communicate your
appreciation to Commissioners Janes, Albion and Judah for their
support of this important initiative. We understand and sympathize
with the philosophical opposition of Commissioners Coy and St Cerny,
but believe that the tax savings and the earlier availability of
these roadways are even more significant.
On January 27th John Yarborough, County Parks and
Recreation Department Director, conducted a public hearing on the
design of the proposed 37,000 square foot community center to be
located in the Estero Community Park, just south of Corkscrew Road
and midway between the railroad tracks and River Ranch Road. This
facility will be the largest community building ever constructed by
the Department, about 2 /12 times the largest existing center.
The plans for this multi-purpose
building include the following:
·
parking for 300
vehicles,
·
concrete and masonry
building with steel beams and roof,
·
built to serve as a
hurricane shelter,
·
the centerpiece is the
main hall containing a front entrance that looks
out through glass onto two basketball courts and bleacher seating
for 650,
·
behind the gymnasium at
the rear of the building is an 80 foot x30 foot outdoor covered
stage with amphitheater-type seating for 600 plus an open area that
can hold another 1,000 people on lawn chairs,
·
the front entrance
leads to two wings which run half the length of the gymnasium on
each side,
·
meeting and activity
rooms line the exterior wall on both sides of the wings,
·
among the meeting rooms
are 2 rooms with a capacity of 50 and 100 persons. These rooms can
be joined in order to provide one 150 person meeting room,
·
another 35 person
meeting room,
·
a catering kitchen,
·
a 1,100 square foot
fitness center with men's and women's locker rooms,
·
a 1,000 square foot
game room,
·
a 10x12 foot computer
instruction room,
·
a 1,200 square foot
arts & crafts room that can double as a meeting room for 80,
·
and a "teen" room.
Civic groups must rent Community
Center meeting rooms, but the rent is expected to be a very nominal
fee. The County currently has available about $5 million of park
impact fees to begin construction of the park, with additional funds
accumulating at about $1 million per year. When the detailed design
of the park is completed later this year the County will present the
design to the Estero Design Review Committee.
Estero Community Planning
Panel
The ECPP met on January 13th
to consider the following three matters:
Jeff
Staner of Miramar Outlets and Lee County Commissioner Ray Judah
presented the compromise signage plans negotiated by the County,
State and the community for US Highway I-75 and for Corkscrew Road.
The plan identifies Miramar Outlets Boulevard without altering the
name of Corkscrew Road as previously approved by the Lee County
Board of County Commissioners. Under the agreement Miramar Outlets
Boulevard would appear on I-75 Exit 123 directional signs beneath
Corkscrew Road in a font at least 10% smaller than Corkscrew.
Miramar Outlets Boulevard would not be added to any east-west
Corkscrew Road street signs. Instead, two new street signs
identifying north and south bound Miramar Outlets Boulevard would be
constructed at the intersection of Corkscrew Road and Miramar
Outlets Boulevard. Staner and Judah both noted that this
compromise is pending the approval of the Florida Department of
Transportation and the Lee County Board of County Commissioners.
The Panel thanked Staner for Miramar’s cooperation in this matter
and Judah for his personal involvement to obtain this compromise.
Riverwoods Plantation (West of
US 41 on Broadway) Comfort Station Zoning Request
Mit Kitchen, speaking for the
Riverwoods Plantation RV Resort Condominium Association, presented
detailed plans for a new eleven by 22-foot freestanding restroom
facility exclusively for the use of the residents of this 640-unit
community. The panel approved the plans as presented, and commended
the association for its conscientious efforts in preparing and
presenting the proposal.
Attorney
Chuck Basinait of Henderson/Franklin and land planner Gary Muller
presented plans for this 100,000 square-foot Mixed Use Development
proposed for the eleven-acre tract on Corkscrew Road, approximately
800 feet east of Sandy Lane and bordered on the east by the
Corkscrew Palms Mixed Use Development currently under construction.
Plans for the development include 28,000 square feet of retail space
and 74,000 square feet of office and other uses. Basinait indicated
that the proposed development will meet the design standards set
forth in the Estero Community Plan and Corkscrew Overlay provisions
of the Lee County Land Development Code. He added that Corkscrew
Palms II is planned to compliment the design of neighboring
Corkscrew Palms. The panel commented favorably on the plans and
thanked Basinait and Muller for their presentation.
Another 1,500
housing units were permitted in Estero during 2002, down from 2,100
in each of the last two years. Nonetheless 5,700 new housing units
have been permitted in Estero during this three year period. The
building value of the 2002 permitted residences, excluding the land
beneath them, exceeded $300 million, while the total for the last
three years was over $1.04 billion.
More and more of the new housing
in Estero are single family homes. In 2000 only 41% of the new
residences permitted in Estero were single family homes. That
percentage increased to 47% in 2001 and to 51% in 2002. As a result,
the average Estero building value, exclusive of land, during
2002 was over $200,000, up15% from the average of the prior two
years.
During 2002 Estero produced 22%
of the total unincorporated Lee county permitted building value for
all kinds of property, down from 26% in 2001. Estero's share of
unincorporated Lee county residential permit value declined from
29.5% to 25% while our share of commercial permitted building value
fell from 15% to 10%. Currently, the estimated Estero permanent
population is about 8% of the total unincorporated Lee county
population.
Finally, Estero's 2002 growth
--though slightly slower than during the last two years-- exceeded
growth in Bonita Springs by a larger margin than in 2001. Estero's
permitted building value for all kinds of property was 37% greater
than Bonita Springs in 2001 and 43% greater in 2002. This increase
was the result of Estero's 2002 housing growth exceeding Bonita
Springs by 108%, up from 70% higher in 2001. On the other hand
Bonita Spring's lead in commercial building permit values increased
markedly from 2001 to 2002--from 41% greater to 61% greater.
In summary, Estero continues to
be the center of growth in Lee County, especially housing growth. As
a result Estero continues to be a major source of property tax
revenue growth for Lee County. As Bonita Springs commercial
properties along US 41 become built out, Estero's commercial growth
will increase dramatically, offsetting the inevitable slowdown in
our exceptional rate of growth in housing units.
On January 6th
the BOCC approved zoning for the
Miromar Design Center to be located
on the south side of Corkscrew Road just east of I-75.
Zoning for the project includes a
400,000 square foot Interior Design Center, a 14,500 square foot
drug store, 36,200 square feet of office space and a 125 room hotel
all situated on about 19 acres of land.
The first floor of the DesignCenter will be open to the
public while the two upper stories will cater exclusively to
interior design professionals. We understand that there are only
about 12 such facilities in the United States. The nearest
comparable design center is the DesignCenter of the Americas located
in Dania, just north of Fort Lauderdale. Miromar's plans call for
the DesignCenter to be built in three
phases.
Prior to the BOCC meeting, County
staff and the Developer agreed on the amount of parking necessary to
support the Design Center. The agreement requires the developer to
provide parking for phase one of the Center as though it were used
entirely for retail purposes. Before proceeding with phases two and
three the developer will submit a parking study to the county. The
results of that study will be used to determine if, and by how much,
the parking requirements can be reduced due to the non-retail use of
the upper floors of the facility. Thus, the County can be assured
that there is adequate parking without requiring large underutilized
parking lots that detract from the appearance of the well-designed
and landscaped facility.
(Southwest Corner) Commercial Planned Development
On January 6th the BOCC
approved rezoning for this 3 acre project with many of the changes
suggested by the ECPP and the Estero
citizens who attended two local meetings on the project in July and
August 2002. The following changes were approved by the Board and
will be conditions restricting future use of the property:
- No
out-door seating at the proposed restaurant, which will not be a
fast food establishment,
- Add
sidewalks along River Ranch Road,
- Add a 20ft
wide buffer area with an 8ft wall buffering adjacent residential
properties,
- Elimination of the proposed entrance from Corkscrew Road,
- Add a
requirement that the project comply with signage and lighting
requirements in effect at the time of application for a
development order,
- Elimination of the requested drive-through authority,
- Add a ban
on any outdoor display of merchandise,
- A
substantial reduction in the number of retail uses sought for
the site.
The
Lee County Hearing Examiner public hearing was held on Thursday,
January 30, 2003. This 24,000 square foot
medical office and surgery
center project is planned for the 3+ acre parcel adjacent to the
west side of Arby’s restaurant, west of Three Oaks Parkway on the
north side of Corkscrew Road. The proposed uses are limited and are
acceptable and needed in our community.
The major issues associated with
the project are:
(1) The County recommends that
the primary access to the parcel from Corkscrew Road be through the
existing western most access into Arby’s. The applicant feels that
the design of that access road will result in unsafe conditions for
entry and exit to Picaya Bay. The applicant has requested a
deviation to allow a second access point directly from Corkscrew
Road, further to the west. The community shares those safety
concerns and feels that if they cannot be solved through a redesign
of the existing access point, then the deviation should be granted,
even though the deviation does not meet county requirements for
minimum spacing of access points and does not provide for roadway
interconnects to the parcel to the west,
(2) The adjacent property to the
north is zoned EC and contains a very large population of gopher
tortoises, which are also present on this site. The proposed site
plan would provide habitat on the northeast, the north and on the
northwest portions of the site. The site design is for a campus of
four buildings, including two smaller buildings on the north. County
Zoning Staff argued that the placement of those two buildings
prevents the applicant from doing even more to preserve and create
habitat, as well as to preserve more of the high quality indigenous
trees currently on the site. The applicant opposes moving the two
most northern buildings southward, or to consolidate space into the
frontage building along Corkscrew Rd., which, coupled with the
second access, limits possible improvements to the site design.
(3) a small amount of parking
will be along the sides of the front building which may be a safety
issue with respect to egress points. The applicant plans to use
these spaces for employee parking which limits the amount of vehicle
movement into and out of these spaces.
Other Estero
Projects In Process
This 22-acre property,
located on the east side of Three Oaks Boulevard just north of Koreshan Boulevard, has been acquired by new owners, The 131 Group
Inc., for just under $100,000 per acre. It is currently zoned for
200 multi-family housing units.
Another outlot has
been sold in this large project, located on the northwest corner of
I-75 and Corkscrew Road. An investor purchased this commercially
zoned 1.35-acre parcel for almost $700,000 per acre. Presently
construction is underway for an industrial user on another outlot at
the rear of the property near the I-75 exit lane.
Stock Development, a large Midwest
developer, has acquired Grandezza from HDG Communities, formerly the
Hardy Development Group. Stock Development has also acquired two
other major southwest Florida golf course communities under
development by HDG---Olde Cypress in North Naples and Lely Resort in
Naples.
The West Bay Club, an upscale
community located at the Western end of Williams Road, has been
purchased by Merrill Lynch. The parent of the prior owner has been
in bankruptcy for the last year or so and had undergone several
leadership changes. Hopefully, this purchase will provide the
stability that the community needs to fulfill its promise as an
outstanding Estero residential community.
On January 14th the EDRC
reviewed for the second time the plans for Corkscrew Palms which is
located on the south side of Corkscrew Road about 1/2 miles west of
River Ranch Road.
The
applicant is seeking a deviation from the 45 foot maximum building
height limitation for the three story buildings that they want to
build on this site. Thus they presented a new plan showing final
height of the 3 story buildings. From the turret at the end of each
building the overall height is 48’ 8” (3’ 8” over code height). The
developer also presented
building plans with out cupolas. The EDRC preferred the building
with the cupolas and the greater height.
The
applicant also made the following changes in the project plans since
the first meeting with the EDRC:
-
Moved the HVAC from the roof to
the ground level;
-
Pedestrian linkages were revised
and a sidewalk was added to the courtyard;
-
The center was made to be more
pedestrian friendly;
-
Several changes were made in the
landscaping plants;
-
The indoor kennel was removed from the list of possible uses
from Alico Road to Corkscrew Road and Corkscrew
Road from Ben Hill Griffin to I-75
On January 14th
the BOCC approved a resolution
increasing the funding for this project from $2 million to $2.75
million so that more expensive and natural landscaping can be
installed and 13 wells, instead of 7 wells, will provide irrigation
as required by the South Florida Water Management District. The
project manager may now issue subcontract agreements and begin
construction. The resolution indicates that the project should be
completed by May 1, 2003.
from Coconut Road to the Bonita
Springs Border
The Bonita Bay Group is now
landscaping this half mile segment in the beautiful
Brooks style.
The project should be completed by the end of February.
Installation of the "core"
landscaping on this road segment is now complete. Also during
January the landscape designers of this project submitted their
final (90%) plans for "intensified" core landscaping to the county.
Once these plans and the related irrigation plans have been approved
by the county, the county and the contractor will negotiate an
amendment to the existing installation contract. Then the
"intensified" landscaping installation can begin.
The "intensified" landscaping
design for Corkscrew Road not only contains many large trees in the
median but also many trees in the right-of-way along the north side
of the road. It is not possible to plant trees in the south
right-of-way due to utility lines and easements. This project is
moving ahead speedily and will be the first county roadway
landscaping project completed with the "intensified core"
landscaping made possible by the $2 million increase in this year's
county landscaping budget.
from
Williams Road to Corkscrew Road
The 60% "intensified"
roadway landscape plan for this segment were presented and discussed
at the RLAC meeting on January 7th. These preliminary
plans are designed to compliment The
Brooks design immediately to
the south, but will be limited to trees and sod both in the median
and along the sides of the road, where they can be maintained.
Final design plans are scheduled
for completion in March whereupon installation contract bidding can
begin.
from US 41
to Three Oaks Parkway
The contract between the county and the landowners providing for private
sector financing of the first year's maintenance of the median
"intensified" landscaping was signed by all the parties during
January. Meanwhile the county is contracting with a landscape
architect firm to develop the "intensified" landscape design for
this segment.
