Estero Council of Community Leaders

Minutes of the Regular Monthly Meeting

April 15, 2005

The meeting was called to order by Chairman Eslick in the River Club of Pelican Sound at 2:00 p.m. A quorum was present.

New Attendees

New attendees were acknowledged and introduced.

Paul Bartolomeo--Lighthouse Bay
Chris DeTomasso--Fountain Lakes
Blayne Spivey-soon to be Estero resident

Minutes

Minutes of the March 18, 2005 meeting were approved.

Chairman introduced County Commissioner Ray Judah and Dave Loveland of Lee DOT.

Treasurer’s Report

Chris Smith gave the Treasurer’s report. We took in $100 from Fountain Lakes. $1,254.00 was paid for our Directors & Officers insurance leaving a balance of $1444.60. The report was approved.

Thanks to Bob Perry

Bob Perry, who is moving away, was given the first Village Visionary award from the ECCL in appreciation for his contribution to the community.

Membership

Barbara Akins reported on some new members appointed to the council. Tony Correnti will represent Rapallo and Paul Carr was appointed by his board at Meadowbrook. These new members were approved.

Estero H.S. Landscaping Project

Bob Perry was the chairman of this project and a new volunteer is needed to replace him. This job needs someone to supervise the project. Not of a lot of time is needed but follow through is important.

Annexation Review Committee

Gordon Lyons and Chairman Eslick attended the April 6 meeting of the Bonita Springs City Council. Annexation of Estero community area was hardly mentioned except by Mayor Jay Ahrens, who stated that “the city council would remain status quo unless inquiries were made from within the community.” Therefore, it was concluded that annexation has been put on the back burner for the time being. Jim Ramsburg reported on the Annexation Survey. There have been no updates on the survey since March 29. About 100 additional surveys have been turned in but will not change the final results by a large margin. Ninety one (91) percent of the respondents are likely voters and they oppose annexation by Bonita Springs by a margin of 85% to 15%. The final results will appear in the May Estero Development Report.

Neal Noethlich, Jim Ramsburg and Don Eslick were presented with framed cartoons of themselves as “Fluffy Feathered Roosters” at the initiative of Dan Dronkers and other Marsh Landing residents. The theme was the result of a recent cartoon in the newspapers.

Transportation Committee Report

The committee has met with Miromar Development, Germaine Arena, Stock Development and FGCU regarding our traffic and road problems in the vicinity of I-75 and Corkscrew Road. Neal Noethlich reported about several meetings with major institutions near the intersection of I-75 and Corkscrew Road. ECCL and the Transportation Committee have been hard at work forming a coalition with the above mentioned institutions and the Bonita Springs Chamber of Commerce Transportation Committee.

Four of the top people of the Lee County DOT met with the Transportation Committee about major county road projects.

• Three Oaks Parkway from Coconut Road to Bonita Beach Road has a $17.4 million short fall in funding. County staff has proposed that $8 million of that money should come from the county and $9.4 million from the city of Bonita Springs. Plans are to complete these segments in July 2007. Lee County hopes to bid the roads in October 2005 Ray Judah stated that the state legislature is a large part of the roads problem.

• Three Oaks Parkway…Corkscrew Road to Alico widening to four lanes should start this fall. Complete construction late 2006-early 2007.

• Estero Parkway Flyover…the County had to redesign the bridge; involuntary acquisition phase is under way. Construction could start this fall if funding were available. But funding is not presently available. $9.4 million needs to be advanced to the 2005-06 fiscal year if the road is to start this fall.

• Estero Parkway Extension is a new project to extend Estero Parkway from Ben Hill Griffin to Corkscrew Road. Grandezza will be impacted by this road and their representatives have met with Commissioner Judah.

• County Road 951 was discussed by Commissioner Judah. Intersecting neighborhoods still seems to be in the planning. John Ruehl suggested a model be made of an eastern alternative and Commissioner Judah agreed to view, listen and discuss this. Arnie Rosenthal felt the plan for CR 951 was not all encompassing and the study should have been more comprehensive and gone as far north as State Road 82. Mr. Loveland stated that $2.5 million has been spent studying this 13 ½ miles of road and at some point in future planning you need to come to a reasonable end to the plan, thus they ended at Alico Road.

• Funding for Sandy Lane north of Corkscrew has been delayed for one year. Sandy Lane from Corkscrew Road to Pelican Colony Boulevard will be done by the middle of next summer.

• Public Input – Transportation committee is there for our benefit, to hear the needs of the community. Jim Merritt was appointed to the Citizens Advisory Committee and praised by Commissioner Judah for his past efforts on behalf of the Estero community. Transportation Committee will be working on traffic matters five years into the future in coordination with the county. Next month more emphasis will be put on state roads.

Code Enforcement

Sam Levy reported that the committee met with the code enforcement people of the county and talked about how this committee can contribute to their enforcement. We can be the eyes and ears for Estero. For example the dangling car at Coconut Pint Ford was handled quickly with coordination with the county. Neal Noethlich talked about the codes for signage, etc. There are 57 pages in Chapter 30 (the signage section) of Lee County regulations. Under our proposed changes prohibited signage cannot be used for special events. Coconut Point Ford petitioned for a banner and a crane and then put the banner on the car being hoisted by the crane. Future language in Estero may need to include cranes and whatever foreseeable eyesore may come along. This is what makes things difficult.

Post Office Development

Dennis Merrifield reported that a special meeting will be held at the library on Thursday, April 27 at 6:00 p.m. He hopes we would show up at this meeting and support the post office in locating a new Estero site for the facility. The Vines (north) and The Brooks (south) would like to be included in the Estero postal boundaries and zip code. Let the post office authorities know this early on with petitions from those areas. The school board’s property on Three Oaks seems to be an ideal spot for the post office to locate and this will be conveyed to the authorities also.

Village with a Vision

Jims Ramsburg reported that they held 16 programs this year reaching about 1,700 residents climaxing the year with over 400 people at the Hyatt hotel presentation. The purpose of the program is to get people involved with their community and this seems to be working with new members joining all Estero associations. Estero Fire Rescue was thanked for their involvement with the program, editing and producing much of the material for us.

Roadway Landscaping

a. Estero Parkway has had two median intersections closed because they will not be needed. Thus a new plan has been developed and installation of the landscaping can begin in 2-3 months.

b. Landscaping of US 41 from Corkscrew to Bonita Springs has been postponed for appeals of State planting restrictions and until the completion of the roadway. The road is planned for 50 mph which limits the size of trees in the median to smaller trees than we desire. The Lee County Board has now approved more under plantings to enhance the roadway without the larger caliper trees. $700,000 of state money and about $600,000 of county money is available to landscape this segment. In about 2-3 months the redesign will be complete and the county will go out for bids. Landscape installation should begin in about 6-7 months. The bottom line is that we will have landscaping on every major road in Estero.

c. Sandy Lane from Corkscrew Road to Pelican Colony Boulevard. A grant of $400,000 is being sought to landscape the median of this roadway. The developers along this roadway have spent about $50,000 for design and will add about $125,000 additional planting to the area. They also will pick up about $125,000 each year in order to maintain the landscaping, thus saving the county about $50,000 a year.

ECPP

Neal Noethlich reported that they have now had 62 public meetings and the Design Review committee has had 30 or 31 meetings with about 4,000 people attending those meeting. The ECCL is having its 30th meeting today. “Not being inclusive” is a non-issue and this was pointed out to Commissioner Judah. The third Estero round of County Land Development Code changes is in its final stages of “fine tuning” and will be brought to the commissioners in about two months. This will include big box standards, improved sign codes and a broader “overlay” that will include US 41.

Estero Community Park Programs

Arnie Rosenthal reported his committee is one person short and needs a volunteer. Discussions will be held with San Carlos Park regarding programs needed there and at the new Estero Community Park. He would like to have a San Carlos Park representative on his committee. This was approved. Arnie also mentioned legislation regarding impact fee changes that need our attention. He encouraged the members to contact their legislators and let them know this movement is wrong.

Corkscrew Fruit Market

Jane McNew reported that the fruit stand on Corkscrew could be told to move within 30 days upon notice from the property owner. These small businesses need to find a place in Estero along with the larger developers. No plans have been started on this property, so fruit stand removal is not imminent. SCORE was one solution suggested to help a small business person. It was also suggested that some of the new developments coming along might be encouraged to find a place for this type of small business. It was suggested members of the ECPP should keep this issue in mind.

Commissioner Judah was thanked for his attendance at the meeting.

Members were encouraged to send a representative to the meetings if they were going to be gone for the summer.

The meeting was adjourned. The next meeting will be Friday, May 13th at the Pelican Sound River Club.