Estero Development Report

Estero Community Park Update

(located between Williams Road and Corkscrew Road just east of the railroad tracks)

On March 7^th the LeeCounty Parks and Recreation Department and their consultants held their second park planning public meeting. Jeff Mudgett, the County's architectural consultant discussed the votes cast by the community at the first park planning meeting and how they influenced what will be built in the park. Among major park concepts the inclusion of a recreation center obtained the highest number of votes followed by passive recreation elements and recreational sports in third place. All three will be included in the park. Other features that will be in the new park ---suggested by the community; considered feasible by the Department and are not duplicative of existing facilities in the area -- are: art studio, historical society building, large pavilion for concerts, off leash Dog Park, flexible play fields, demonstration garden, pedestrian paths, world class cross country track, a skating park, soccer fields, inline hockey rink, boccie ball facility, volley ball courts, fountain in ponds--not at entryway unless it is donated (too expensive), stocked ponds, two entries with no interconnecting roads, no perimeter fence, paths to neighboring areas, Old Florida architectural theme, a hill, a recycling center, picnic areas and open areas.  

The third park planning meeting begins at 6:30 on Tuesday evening April 2, 2002 at the South County Regional Library.  The County and its consultants have used the input from the last meeting to develop a working program for the park. They will present this working program at this meeting along with some conceptual layouts of the park.  Pubic reaction will be sought regarding the "big ideas" of each possible park layout (plan).  In addition the consultants will lead a discussion on the general costs involved with the recreation center - what is in a two million dollar rec. center vs. a four million dollar rec. center, and how can it be phased?  Once the consultants have gauged public opinion about the desired scale of the recreation center and what park amenities are the most important to the community, a discussion of overall phasing of the park will conclude this part of the meeting.

The County will conduct a "name the park" contest at this meeting. The consultants will ask each person at the meeting to suggest one idea for the name of the park. Each new name will be listed on the wall at the front of the room. Then everyone present will be given two or three adhesive dots to vote by affixing them on the wall next to their favorite names for the park.  The consultants will tally them and the Department will recommend the three top vote getters to the CountyCommissioners for final selection.

Estero Community Plan Update

The Estero Community Planning Panel (ECPP) continued to research the feasibility of establishing a professional community appearance committee (CPC) to review the plans of all developments in Estero's commercial corridors -- Corkscrew Road and U. S. 41 -- for compliance with new, higher appearance standards (different for the two roadways) applicable only to these areas of the County and to recommend changes in those plans to county staff prior to their review and approval.

On March 12^th a group of Panel representatives traveled to Westin and Boca Raton to learn first hand of those communities' appearance planning efforts and to see the results. The highlight of the trip was a meeting with Grant Thornborough, Chairman of the Boca Raton Community Appearance Board (CAB) and an opportunity to view that Board in action.

This Board of design professional has been in operation for about 35 years. During this period it has reviewed the plans for every development in that city of 70,000 people except those for single family homes. They meet weekly and consider as many as 35 items per meeting. During the typical year they approve about 600 projects. Over the course of those years they have never been sued and the Boca Raton City Council has seldom overturned their decisions.

The Panel representatives observed the final review of a major project that had been before the CAB several times previously. The renderings of the building as finally approved and the original proposal for the building were like night and day--the improvement was so great. The knowledge, experience and professionalism of the CAB unquestionably have had a major impact on the appearance and reputation of Boca Raton as a beautiful city. The Boca experience clearly demonstrates that the combination of general appearance guidelines and professional interpretation can produce far better results than the usual minimum legal standards that too often become maximum applications, employed by the traditional Land Development Code approach.  

During March the ECPP also continued its efforts to amend the County Land Development Code during this spring-summer cycle. The Panel's recommendations, reported last month, were the subject of a meeting of the County's Land Development Code Advisory Committee (LDCAC) early in the month. The Committee was generally supportive of the changes proposed by the ECCP. The LDCAC raised three issued addressed by the ECPP at its March 18^th meeting. In response to the first question, the ECPP decided that the Community Appearance Committee (CPC) should be involved as soon as the application is complete and should not delay the county's consideration of the application.

The second concern of the LDCAC focused upon the feasibility of drive through restaurants in areas where street side parking is prohibited. This provision is included among the LDC changes the Panel has recommended for Corkscrew Road. The Panel noted that drive through facilities with appropriate modifications operate in other communities with restrictions such as we have proposed.

Finally the LDCAC proposed that the Community Appearance Committee (CPC) be sunset (terminated and possibly reinstated) after a period of two years. At tis March 18^th meeting the Panel suggested that the operation of the CPC be reviewed and sunset after four years of operation.

Simon Suncoast (now "Coconut Point") Mall

and Mixed Use Development (on the east side of US 41 from Williams Road to Coconut Road )

During March this Development of Regional Impact (DRI) was reviewed for three more days by the Lee County Hearing Examiner assigned to the project. The principal areas of contention between LeeCounty staff and the developer continue to be road and low income housing issues.

Key roadway issues are:

·        Simon has agreed to pay $14.8 million as its share of roadway improvements necessary to service the project area. It will get credit for some of this amount after it builds Sandy Lane from Corkscrew Road through the project to the Bonita Springs northern border. The parties still disagree about how and when these payments will be made.

·        Simon and CountyTransportation staff continue to disagree about how the status of road improvements should influence the approval of building permits necessary for the construction of the 1,800,000 square foot retail Mall. Both parties have put forth Mall permit phasing schedules but they would operate differently and do not appear to satisfy the other party's needs.

·        How much of the money that Simon would pay for road improvements would, in turn be paid to BonitaSprings, to help pay its share of the cost of constructing some of these roads has also not been determined.

The developer's contribution to the provision of affordable housing is also a matter of dispute between the County and Simon. Rival studies show substantially different impacts of the Mall on the need for such housing. Nonetheless the differences seem to have narrowed and discussions will, no doubt, continue over the next several months.

Also during March the Florida Department of Community Affairs recommended denying the LeeCounty comprehensive Plan amendment that is necessary for the project to be implemented on this site. According to press reports the State was not aware of some changes that have occurred since the plan amendment was forwarded to the State for its review several months ago. This information will soon be forwarded to the State and should resolve this problem.

ECCO testified before the Hearing Officer and emphasized the following four points:

·        The need to have a system in place that would closely monitor the progress of all essential road projects; to immediately bring any delays to public attention; to identify the cause of the delay; and to immediately implement a plan for making up any lost time caused by the delay; and

·        Encourage the developer to work with the Estero Community Planning Panel regarding plans for the Town Center included in the Coconut Mall part of the project and its plans to create an "overlay zoning district" for U. S. 41 throughout Estero; and

·        To expand the developer's "beauty book" so that these appearance standards can be enforced by the County and the community can rely on their being implemented throughout the project; and

·        The developer continue to work with the community regarding "upgraded landscaping" of the medians on 41 immediately adjacent to the project site and that the segment of Sandy Lane between Corkscrew Road and Williams Road be landscaped comparable to that which is installed throughout the project site.

When the Hearing Officer adjourned the hearing on Friday, March 22^nd he gave the parties two weeks (April 5, 2002) to submit written information on each of the outstanding issues. The next step in the process occurs when Hearing Examiner issues his report --probably about the end of April. Then the matter goes to the Board of County Commissioners for their final decision on the project. They could deny the application; approve it; or approve it with conditions. The Board will probably initially consider this zoning issue in June.  

Estero Building Permit Activity

The number of new housing units permitted in Estero during January and February continued behind the torrid pace of the prior two years. One hundred ninety one (191) housing units were permitted during the first two month this year, compared to 289 last year and 329 in 2000. The total building value (exclusive of land) for all development in Estero during January and February was $37.2 million, down from $58.7 million last year and $48.8 million in 2000. These declines occurred in spite of some last minute building permit applications stimulated this year by major changes in the Florida Building Codes becoming effective on all buildings permitted after February 28, 2001.

This slowdown is not confined to Estero. During the first two months of the year the building value of housing units permitted in Estero exceeded those in Bonita Springs by 50%. The building value of all development permitted in Estero during this period was 31% greater than Bonita's comparable total.  

Municipal Overlay Proposal

On March 11^th former State Representative and planning professional Ralph Livingston discussed the "municipal overlay" statute that he authored while a member of the Florida legislature. A municipal overlay is an amendment to a County Comprehensive Plan that would designate the boundaries of a possible future municipality. Livingstonindicated his belief that such a designation by the CountyBoard in its comprehensive plan would serve as a barrier to annexation of any part of that municipal overlay district. Although the statute has been on Florida's law books since 1996, it has not yet been used.

The County must prepare the municipal overlay for any area under its jurisdiction or by written agreement authorize some sponsoring organization to prepare some or all of it. Among the items that must be included in the municipal overlay are the following:

·        Boundary options for the creation of the new municipality.

·        A feasibility such as is required for a municipality to incorporate.

·        A map of existing and planned land uses.

·        Population projections for the area.

·        Data and analysis relating to the provision of public facilities for the area.

The County must finance the cost of development of the municipal overlay unless there is a written agreement between the county and another entity to fund it.

"Save Estero" Preliminary Analysis
of Possible Estero Incorporation Report Synopsis

This report was prepared by Marsha Segal-George, town manager of Ft. Myers Beach. Her major findings and conclusions are as follows:

• If Estero were to incorporate today it would be able to spend $1,956,075 for municipal services from municipal services property tax revenues now flowing to Lee County but redirected to Estero upon incorporation;

• Although Estero's population is now much higher than it was when the 2000 census figures were determined, the study estimates state revenue sharing based upon 9,000 full time residents (about 500 less than were counted here in 2000) to be $934,056 at this time;

• Franchise fees for solid waste, cable and electricity are now collected by Lee Countyand would be transferred to the City of Estero upon incorporation. They are conservatively estimated to total $475,440 at this time;

• Lee Countyhas imposed a local option gas tax and now shares that revenue with the other cities in the county. Once again assuming a full time population for Estero of 9,000 it is estimated that a new City of Estero would annually receive about $250,000 in revenue from this source.

• A new City of Estero would receive Park and Road impact fees now accruing to the County. It is estimated that these fees would annually yield Estero at least $3 million dollars.

• "In summary, very conservatively speaking the new city would have approximately $6,615,571 in annual income." Of this amount $3,365,571 is unrestricted in use while the remaining $3,250,000 would "be available for capital construction, roads, parks, drainage improvements, landscaping, bike paths and sidewalks…".

• The report contains a draft budget for "a very basic government" for the new municipality. This budget includes the following: a city manager, a lawyer, two code enforcement officers (by contract), animal control, the new community park, elections and the beginning of the visioning and comprehensive plan process.

• "The draft budget offered provides for $1 million in contingency and reserves and still leaves the community with $4,502,164 in unallocated revenue that can be used to begin your capital improvement plan (CIP) where many of the community esthetics and quality of life issues will be targeted."

• The Report enumerates the services that Lee Countywould continue to provide to Estero in spite of its incorporation. They are: law enforcement as provide by the Lee County Sheriff's office; library services; road maintenance on county roads.

• In addition water and sewer service and zoning and planning service costs would not be affected by incorporation. A new City of Estero would need to pay for the maintenance of local roads.

• The report indicates that if the incorporation process were started today the incorporation referendum could be held about 17 months from now with the city becoming a legal entity about three months later. Thus if the incorporation initiative were started now Estero could become a city in December 2003; if started a year from now Estero could become a city in December 2004, etc.

•  Among the challenges that a new city of Estero would face is: 1) development of a hurricane evacuation plan, 2) development of a comprehensive plan and Land Development Code for the municipality, and 3) development of a system for dealing with land use issues.

• The report states that the "whole Estero community" will not be able to vote on "whether portions of their community could be or should be annexed by Bonita Springs"

• "Let's look at what services Estero receives for that unincorporated MSTU ($1,956,075). The types of services that are received from these dollars include: code enforcement, animal control, local road and drainage work, any local community park maintenance/operation, NPDES, waterway management and some planning services."

• "It is clear the Estero is a donor community but the community debate will decide whether that is a comfortable bargain with the County".

Three Oaks Fire Station Begins Operation

Although Three Oaks Boulevard is still not open for traffic, the new Three Oaks Fire Station is up and operating. This 5,600 square foot station now houses three firefighters and paramedics with two more expected when a Lee County ambulance also moves into the facility. The station has the capacity to house up to four fire trucks. This station reduces the emergency response time to The Brooks, Country Creek, Corkscrew Woodlands and all surrounding developments by more than 50%. Not only does the Three Oaks station greatly improve public safety, but in the longer run will also reduce Estero homeowners' insurance rates.