ESTERO COMMUNITY PLANNING PANEL

Minutes of Public Meeting #113 – March 15, 2010

Estero Community Park, Estero, Florida

Panel Members Present: Jack Lienesch, Civic Association,  Chairman;  John Goodrich , ECCL;  Ned Dewhirst, Estero development community;  Jeff Maas, Estero Chamber of Commerce;  Dan DeLisi, Estero development community;  Greg Toth, Founding Member; Treasurer: Bev MacNellis, ECCL and Bill Brown, Recording Secretary, ECCL. Absent:, Neal Noethlich;  Erik Dickens.

Introduction of new panel members: Lienesch called the meeting to order at 6:01 PM and introduced: Ned Dewhirst, Sr. Vice President of Oakbrook Properties who will represent the development community and Jeff Maas, Gates Construction, replacing Lin Welch on the Estero Chamber of Commerce.  Toth becomes a “Founding Member” similar to Noethlich’s “Emeritus Member” position. 

Public Notice: Brown reported that the meeting notice appeared in the Naples Daily News Calendar, the 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 February meeting. They were corrected to show that the January minutes had been approved, not December.  Goodrich: Motion to accept minutes as corrected. : DeLisi Second.  Accepted unanimously.   

Treasurer’s Report:    Treasurer Bev MacNellis reported that the current balance of $463.36 is in the Community Planning Panel account on deposit at the BB&T Bank. 

Developer Presentation:  Picaya Bay Surgery Center Administrative Amendment – Alexis Crespo said the Surgery Center is requesting  an  Administrative amendment to add a usage to the existing zoning.  It authorizes a 500 ft. office for a Visiting Nurse. An existing executive suite will be used. The Panel supported the request.  Lienesch   will write an email on their behalf to Pam Houck supporting their request.

ECPP: Estero Greens Update - Lienesch sent a letter to Pam Houck re: the recommendations in our minutes.  She responded that she would take them into consideration during the county review.  Then Veronica Martin stated in an email to Lienesch “At this time we will not be pursuing any zoning action and intend to comply with the conditions set forth in the approved Zoning Resolution.”  In other words, they’re making a minor site revision to comply with the existing zoning.  We are expecting a DO soon. – EDRC will see the plans.  They should look for the masonry wall at their Western boundary to be consistent with adjacent parcels.  Lienesch will ask Bob Melzer , Chairman of EDRC,  to ensure Fountain Lakes is represented when the committee reviews the designs.

Broadway US41 intersection update – Rick Johnson (owner of the adjacent property), Harry Campbell (Traffic Engineer from the County) and Lienesch will meet on March 26 at the tire store site to discuss the issues.  Rick is concerned that he will lose the southbound left into his shopping center with the US 41 widening.  He had tried to get an egress onto Broadway via an interconnect to the post office property to the East but was turned down by the owner.  Harry wants to protect for a future additional eastbound lane to allow a lane for dedicated left, through and right turns.  Our goal is to try to reach a compromise among all parties.  John Goodrich agreed to join our meeting on the 26^th.

Discussion of meeting held with David Owen and Donna Marie Collins on their recommendation as to how to amend the Lee Plan and LDC, among other issues. 

Don Eslick, Lienesch and Nick Batos met on Feb. 24^th.   Items pertinent to the ECPP included: 1.) Midtowne Estero – Owen said if you have something to challenge, you must LAWYER UP. Don’t attempt to represent yourselves.  Collins – even with a lawyer and transportation engineer representing Estero, the case would have been difficult to turn around.  Among other things, they discussed potential ways we could amend the county documents to put a finer point on things such as big boxes and other usages we would prefer not to have.  Two ways to do this: 1) Board Initiated – they would tell planning what to do; 2) Privately – hire a planner to submit requested changes to the Lee Plan.  Sept. 30, 2010 is the deadline for their regular cycle.  A fee would be required if not (1).  They also commented that “mixed use” was never defined as a requirement…it’s been and continues to be an option.  Both attorneys emphasized we need to retain experts, not members of the public, to get our documented testimony considered above lay opinion. Collins commented that in refining plan language we need to review the layers in the current policy…however she cautioned that we do NOT want to squelch economic development in Estero by use of overly restrictive language.  She reiterated that we can amend the plan ourselves per (2).   After hearing this, DeLisi commented that all Estero Lee Plan amendments have been county initiated!  We are an advisory body to the board with respect to plan changes for Estero. Neither DeLisi nor Dewhirst could understand why we would want to change the Lee Plan for the above amendments; they should be LDC amendments.   This will be discussed in future ECPP meetings.

 Update on BCHC sign – Bob Melzer from the EDRC and Lienesch met with Suzanne Bradach (new CEO of the Bonita Community Health Center) on February 22^nd to give her the history of the sign controversy.  Lienesch’s meeting notes show:  BCHC has recently changed their logo.  This will necessitate a redo of the graphics on the existing sign at some time in the near future. Melzer offered his committee's advice on how to alter the existing sign (as opposed to our original suggestion to redo it completely).  He noted that lettering standards and color changes along with perhaps a change in the background would go a long way toward making the appearance more consistent with Estero requirements.  Suzanne promised to review any future design changes for the sign with the EDRC prior to implementing them.

Update on Signage in General –DeLisi, Lienesch and Melzer met with Mary Zettel at County Code Enforcement to discuss Chapter 33 vs. Chapter 30 and the issues we all have in interpreting our language.   Zettel showed several areas of both codes that are inconsistent. Panel members were given a handout comparing Chapter 30 (Lee County) and Chapter 33 (Estero specific) language regarding signage.  Several proposals were discussed to refine our language…again, more to come on this topic.

Continued discussion of the ECPP section of the Developers’ Checklist – Dewhirst will go through our website’s developer’s flow chart and note any issues that need to be addressed from a developer’s standpoint.  Lienesch will schedule a meeting with our webmaster, Kim Dailey, and anyone else interested in the checklist to review any changes that we need to make.

Member issues - John Goodrich discussed a meeting held with Paul Roberts (Southland Village) and 200 residents of Cypress Bend on the impact of Southland’s proposed new development.  The meeting went well, although there are still concerns over the issue of flooding south of Broadway.

Update on David Graham Award for 2010   Dickens had a death in his family which has caused postponement of this issue to our April meeting   DeLisi will sort out ULI timing for our award presentation later in the Spring.  Maas agreed to speak with Joe Murgalo at the Hyatt to ensure they know what is available to them this Spring if they wish to cooperate with our committee.

Meeting adjourned at 7:25 PM.                 

 NEXT MEETING:

            6:00 PM, MONDAY, April 19,  ESTERO COMMUNITY PARK