ESTERO COMMUNITY PLANNING PANEL

Minutes of Public Meeting #111 – January 11, 2010
Estero Community Park, Estero, Florida
 
Panel Members Present: Jack Lienesch, Civic Association,  Chairman;  John Goodrich , ECCL;  Erik Dickens, ECCL; Treasurer: Bev MacNellis, ECCL; Recording Secretary: Bill Brown, ECCL    Absent: Lin Welch, Neal Noethlich, Dan DeLisi and  Greg Toth.
 
Public Notice: Lienesch called the meeting to order at 6:01 PM with seventeen in the audience.  Brown reported that the meeting notice appeared in the News Press this morning, the Naples News Website calendar, Century-Link Estero Events Calendar and Esterofl.org websites. The notice was posted at the South County Regional Library, Realty World of Estero, the BB&T and Wachovia Banks.
Secretary’s Report: Brown distributed minutes of the December meeting.  Goodrich: Motion to accept minutes as corrected. : Dickens Second.  Accepted unanimously. 

Treasurer’s Report:   

Treasurer Bev MacNellis reported that the current balance of $494.61 is  in the Community Planning Panel account on deposit at the BB&T Bank.  Dickens: Motion to accept the report as e-mailed. Goodrich: Second.  Accepted unanimously.
 

Developer Presentations:

On Street parking request for Heatherstone at Rookery Point – Joe Krepel, Property Manager.  Responding to residents’ requests the Heatherstone Board voted to make the perimeter road, Foxhall Way one-way on the eastern side thereby allowing 18 parking spaces. The Estero Fire Marshall, Phillip Green, indicated that he had worked out an agreement for No Parking at the corners of cross roads to provide for a Fire Lane.  He said there are similar problems at Copper Oaks. After Panel discussion, Lienesch agreed he would write stating the Panel agreed with the Heatherstone Association proposal, suggesting the association board sort out which direction the one way should go.

University Highlands

Neale Montgomery, Pavese Law Firm and Al Moscato of NM Development Group indicated as a result of the I-75 Flyover extension of Estero Parkway bordering University Highlands at the new corner of the Parkway and Ben Hill Griffin, University Highlands wants to change the mix of permitted uses. They hope to submit a new schedule of uses by the end of January which will reduce the number of residents and increase commercial on the Ben Hill Griffin side of  the property. This would include a 200 room hotel and an additional office building which might be a medical office. Dickens suggested that this might provide for the emergency facility that the Council of Community Leaders has been working with Bonita Springs to get. Montgomery agreed she would meet with the chairman of the Community Leaders, Don Eslick to explore this possibility. The four residents of Grandezza present were asked for their input.  Goodrich got assurance from Montgomery that there would be no Big Box.  Montgomery said they would return to the Panel when they had details of the proposed changes.

ECPP:

Midtowne Estero Status- Lienesch reported on the Board of County Commissioners’ compromise which accepts the Court’s decision to approve the requested zoning with the proviso that no building can exceed 99,999 sq. feet,  thus ruling out a Big Box. The County Director of Community Development, Mary Gibbs told Lienesch that the developer will have to redo the Master Concept Plan and the County Attorney’s office will draft language to put the proviso in the zoning.  The Design Review Committee will have jurisdiction when the developer seeks a Development Order. Lienesch indicated the Panel needs to try to avoid this kind of court reversal again by revising the Corkscrew Overlay perhaps by adding provisions for specific building size limitations in Chapter 33 of Lee County’s land development code.

High School sign: the proposal for the sign has been withdrawn because of budget constraints.

Developer’s Check List on Website: Lienesch proposed the following changes, in addition to language on the $100 fee for developer’s first appearance.  The issue is the links to County documents no longer work because of reorganization of the documents by the County.  The proposal is that the panel would request specific  information from developers such as:
·         What zoning changes are you requesting ?
·         Property layout and location
·         Surrounding zoning
·         Density/building height/setback/buffer type, etc.
·         Usages
·         Traffic Patterns
·         Chapter 30 and 33 compliance
·         Requested deviations, if any
·         Water flow management
·         Other…
 
           Lienesch indicated that the Design Review Committee will meet Wednesday at which time he plans to introduce Brian Farrar as a new Committee member and to reinstate the Signage Committee.
Meeting adjourned at 7:25 PM.
                 
 NEXT MEETING:
            6:00 PM, MONDAY, February 15,  ESTERO COMMUNITY PARK