Estero Development Report
Volume 2, Number 12
Issued April 2002
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
Estero Development Activities during April 2002
May Opportunities for Citizen
Participation In Protecting Estero's Quality of Life
|
Date |
Time |
Event |
Location |
|
Monday, May 6th |
9:30 a.m. |
Stoneybrook Commercial Zoning Hearing
by the Board of County Commissioners |
Board Chambers, 2nd Floor,
2115 2nd Street, Ft. Myers |
|
Friday, May 10th |
8 a.m. |
Land Development Code Advisory
Committee review of the Corkscrew Road Overlay Proposal |
Community Development Building, 1st
Floor, 1500 Monroe Street, Ft Myers |
|
Thursday, May 16th |
5:30-- 7:30 pm |
Estero Chamber of Commerce Business
After Hours-- Commissioner Ray Judah speaker |
Copperleaf Country Club in The Brooks |
|
Monday, 20th |
6 p.m. |
Estero Community Planning Panel Meeting |
South County Regional Library |
|
Tuesday, May 21st |
1:00 p.m. |
Dedication of Three Oaks Fire Station |
Three Oaks Fire Station just south of
Corkscrew |
Estero’s Community Plan is now officially part of the Lee County
Comprehensive Plan. That means the County must use the provisions of
the Community Plan when evaluating all Estero zoning requests, and
further some provisions in the Community Plan will influence the way
the county evaluates Development Orders in Estero.
During April the first set of County Land Development Code
changes prepared by the Estero Community Planning Panel (ECPP) and
its consultants was discussed by the County’s Land Development Code
Advisory Committee (LDCAC) for the second time. In early May the
LDCAC and another county advisory committee, the Executive
Regulatory Oversight Committee (EROC), will discuss these proposals
and adopt recommendations for the Board of County Commissioners. In
addition the ECPP has twice received written recommendations from
County Planning staff. After discussions with staff many staff
suggestions were included in the recommendations.
These County Land Development Code changes are needed to provide
legally enforceable standards for future development in Estero, and
are higher than those currently in use throughout Lee County. Some
of the ECPP's proposals will apply throughout Estero while others
will apply only in specified high growth commercial corridors like
Corkscrew Road and U S 41.
The proposed community-wide recommendations include:
- Landscape buffers between all types of property uses and
adjacent to various types of right-of-ways; and
- Special standards applicable to automobile service stations
and convenience food and beverage stores that sell motor fuels.
To illustrate the detail incorporated into this twenty one page
proposal, the automobile service station standards govern: location
and site standards regarding minimum frontage, minimum property
depth, minimum parcel area, minimum separation distance, setbacks,
landscaping, curbing, perimeter walls, lighting, rest rooms, trash
storage, storage tanks, outside display of products, building
colors, color banding on canopy structures, infrastructure for
generators and entrance and exit requirements.
Another major initiative included in the ECPP's current proposal
would establish a Community Appearance Committee (CAC) to apply
legally enforceable design guidelines to projects in each of
Estero’s high growth commercial corridors – Corkscrew Road (now) and
US 41 (later this year). The design guidelines to be used by the CAC
are intended to encourage mixed-use developments, interconnectivity
between adjacent projects and increased pedestrian activity. When
design guidelines have been enforced by a CAC the result has been
more creative project designs and improved compatibility with
surrounding developments. The use of design guidelines provides the
CAC and County staff with more flexibility than the traditional
minimum legal standard approach used in many jurisdictions.
The proposed Estero CAC will consist of seven (7) persons with at
least four (4) of them being design professionals and no more than
two (2) being Estero business owners or developers, all of whom are
nominated by County Commissioners and approved by the Board. A
minimum of four (4) members must be full time residents of Estero.
The responsibility of the CAC will be to review all development
order applications if the property is located in an Estero “overlay
district”. "Development Orders" are the detailed project plans for a
property that has been zoned as a planned development. An “overlay
district” is an area that is subject to a unique set of county land
development code standards not applicable to other areas of the
county. The design guidelines of the overlay district are applicable
to each property located in the district.
The purpose of the CAC is to ensure that the design guidelines are
being implemented correctly in each Estero overlay district, in
conformance with the community vision included in the
Estero
Community Plan. The CAC will work with developers to assure their
projects are compatible with surrounding developments and enhance
the beauty of Estero. The recommendations of the CAC are advisory to
the Lee County Planning Department whose responsibility it is to
issue development orders for each planned development consistent
with the Lee Plan and the Land Development Code in force at the time
of approval.
Finally, the current proposal of the Estero Community Planning
Panel creates an “overlay district” for Corkscrew Road from U S 41
to Wildcat Run. The purpose of the overlay district is to assure
that the road will be developed as Estero's Main Street, will be
architecturally appealing and attractively landscaped. It will
contain retail, office, residential, and institutional developments
that serve the needs of the community. In addition each project must
be compatible with the surrounding uses and tied together by a
pedestrian walkway and greenway system.
The proposed design standards for the overlay include detailed
provisions governing each of the following aspects of each
development:
• Architectural style
• Complement surrounding development
• Façade treatment
• Infill developments
• Multi-tenant buildings
• Maximum height
• Out-parcels
• Corner Lots
• Areas of Public Interest
• Street Front Activity
• Landscaping
• Window Treatment
• Bicycle Racks
• Street Furniture and Public Amenities
• Service Areas
• Awnings
• Building Color
• Columns
• Landscape Designs
• Lighting
• Natural and Man-made Bodies of Water
• Parking
• Transportation, Roadways, Streets, Bridges and Utilities
• Pedestrian Walkways/Linkages
• Places of Public Interest/Open Space
• Service Areas
• Transit Facilitation, and
• Tree Preservation.
and Mixed Use Development (on the east side of US 41 from
Williams Road to Coconut Road )
The Hearing Officer on this major project gave the parties until
April 5, 2002 to submit written information on each of the
outstanding issues. The developer's information clearly stated their
objections to the conditions that County staff recommended for
zoning the project. In addition the developer filed information
clearly showing where they differed with the County on what the
developer must do to mitigate the regional impacts of the project.
The County's submittal merely summarized the status of discussions
regarding the proposed uses for each of the tracts included in the
project. In the month since this information was submitted the
Hearing Officer has been evaluating the merits of each issue as
presented by the parties. His report could be issued at any time. It
is expected that next month's Estero Development Report will
summarize the Hearing Officer's recommendations on critical issues
impacting the citizens of Estero.
Several residents of The Brooks testified before the Hearing
Officer during the project hearings in March. They did not testify
in opposition to the project but expressed their concerns about the
project's impact on their community. Since then they have circulated
a petition in The Brooks and other Estero communities in support of
these concerns. The petition states in part: "We hereby seek the
support of our County Commissioners…by including the following
features in the mall development plan:
• Require that all mall related road improvement projects be
completed prior to the mall opening,
• Require completion of Sandy Lane prior to the start of mall
construction,
• Restrict all construction, delivery and commercial vehicles
from using Three Oaks Parkway and Coconut Road,
• Restrict deliveries to the mall to between 7:00 am and 6:00
pm,
• Provide adequate signal lights at all entrances,
• Restrict speed limits on Three Oaks Parkway, Coconut Road and
Sandy Lane to 35 miles per hour,
• Limit left turn lanes into the mall to two (2) from US 41 and
one (1) from Coconut Road (at the intersection of Sandy Lane),
• Provide signal lights at the entrances to "The Brooks"
subdivisions (on Coconut Road and Three Oaks Parkway),
• No commercial outlets and signage on Coconut Road,
• Provide adequate berming and a screening wall between Sandy
Lane and the railroad track,
• Insure that all mall lighting (on Sandy Lane and in parking
areas) illuminate downward,
• Restrict building height to fifty (50) feet,
• Require Simon to provide adequate security for the mall and
its borders.
The Hearing Officer's report may resolve some of these issues.
The others should be researched and discussed within the community
and with the developer prior to the Board of County Commissioner's
Hearing that will probably be scheduled for sometime in June or
July.
Earlier editions of the Estero Development Report described how
Florida estimates population growth for municipalities between
Federal Censuses. The methodology lags the number of housing units
authorized by building permits and applies census household size
ratios to estimate the permanent population of a city.
During the first quarter of 2002 about 520 new housing units were
completed and occupied in Estero. Using this procedure, the
estimated increase in Estero's population during this quarter was
almost 1,100 persons -- almost 700 permanent residents and another
400 snowbirds.
On March 31st Estero’s estimated permanent population was about
15,050. On March 31st Estero’s total population was estimated to be
almost 24,000.
Newly released census figures rank Lee County as the 100th
fastest growing county in the U. S. between April 1, 2000 and July
1, 2001. During this period the County's population grew by an
estimated 21,567 persons to 462,455, a 4.9% increase.
On April 23rd the Lee County Board voted to accept the Three Oaks
road segment between Corkscrew Road and Williams Road after a month
of haggling with an affiliate of the Bonita Bay Group over title
questions raised by the road’s construction. Opening this short one
mile segment also opens for public use an additional four miles of
four lane roadway extending from Williams Road south to Coconut Road
and west from that intersection on Coconut Road to U S 41. This
addition increases the capacity of Estero’s north-south
thoroughfares by 50% from 8 to 12 lanes between Corkscrew and
Coconut. Over the next five years Three Oaks is expected to become a
four-lane thoroughfare from Naples to Fort Myers. The four-mile
segment of Three Oaks and Coconut through
the Brooks is undoubtedly
Lee County’s most beautifully landscaped roadway, and an important
anchor to the system of landscaped roadways planned for Estero.
At the urging of the Lee County School District discussions have
begun about widening this roadway between U S 41 and Three Oaks
Parkway from two to four lanes The School Board raised the issue
with the Technical Advisory Committee to the Metropolitan Planning
Organization which agreed to consider it in a future update of the
long range plan. This issue was also discussed at a Parent Advisory
Council meeting at Estero High School on Monday, April 15th.
According to Dave Loveland, chief planner for the Lee County DOT,
this project has not been planned and no money has been budgeted for
it. For the widening to occur it first must be incorporated into the
long-range roadway plans of the region and the county. With these
meetings that time consuming process has begun.
During April the City of Bonita Springs and its consultants held
several Public Hearings and meetings in an effort to choose the best
route for two segments of a four-lane extension of Three Oaks
Parkway from The Brooks to Bonita Beach Road. On Monday April 29th
the Bonita City Council voted to select the final route for both
segments of this important road.
The southern leg, which extends from Bonita Beach Road to East
Terry Street, is expected to be fully planned by the end of
September. Property acquisition has begun with more expected
throughout 2002. Construction has been funded for the City's 2003
and 2004 fiscal years.
The northern leg, which extends from East Terry Street to Three
Oaks in The Brooks, began the planning phase in late February this
year. Right of way acquisition is budgeted for the 2002-03 fiscal
year, with construction planned for the 2003-04 time period.
These roadway segments need to be completed no later than 2006,
when the Simon Coconut Point Town Center is expected to be
completed, if we are to avoid overloading Coconut Road in
The Brooks and US 41 south of Coconut Road. The total cost of these roadway
improvements is estimated to exceed $30 million.
Traffic consultants hired by the City of Bonita Springs have
reported that the existing two-lane Old 41 from Rosemary Drive north
to US 41 will operate at the County's lowest service level when the
Simon Coconut Town Center is completed even if Three Oaks is up and
operating through Bonita Springs. Thus they recommend that the city
plan to widen this road segment to four lanes at a cost of $9
million with $2 being paid by Lee County from Simon Coconut Point
road fees. The City's draft Capital Improvement Budget (CIB) sets
aside $7 million for this project in fiscal 2002 and 2003.
The County's long range plan provides for Old 41 to be connected
to a two-lane extension of Sandy Lane just west of its northern
intersection with US 41. It also would extend Sandy Lane north to
Oriole Road in San Carlos Park. The Simon Corporation has suggested
that this four lane segment of Old 41 be connected to a four-lane
extension of Sandy Lane --the major four-lane north-south route
carrying traffic through the entire Coconut Point project -- at a
point just east of US 41 as a project mitigation initiative. This is
one of the conditions for project approval that has not yet been
resolved. By creating another north-south thoroughfare this
improvement would greatly reduce traffic congestion on US 41 south
of Coconut Road.
In addition the consultant's report recommends that Terry Street
be four-laned between Old 41 and Imperial Street at a cost of about
$1.4 million. This work is planned for fiscal 2005 in the City's
draft CIB.
During April considerable progress was made on several of
Estero's 19 roadway landscaping projects. The following is a brief
summary:
- Estero's, and Lee County's, two most beautifully landscaped
road segments were opened to traffic. We encourage you to view
them yourself by driving down Three Oaks Boulevard from
Corkscrew to Coconut and turn right on Coconut and continue over
to US 41. This nearly 5 mile corridor will show you what all of
Estero's roads can look like if we persevere in our efforts to
implement Lee County's existing roadway beautification programs
and to expand County support for upgraded median landscaping.
- Corkscrew Road-- the County has received bids from
contractors to install "core" level (canopy trees and sod)
median landscape design along Corkscrew Road between Sandy Lane
and Corkscrew Woodlands later this year. They are now evaluating
the low bidders to ensure they have the capabilities necessary
for the project. When that is completed the contract will be
negotiated and construction will begin.
- Three Oaks Parkway--the County is preparing a
contract for the firm that will develop the "core" landscape
design for this nearly one mile road segment between Corkscrew
Road and Williams Road. The design work usually takes about six
months to complete. Then the bidding process will begin. Thus
this project will probably not be implemented until early 2003.
- Koreshan Boulevard--the four major landowners along
Koreshan between Three Oaks and US 41 met and committed
themselves to a partnering contract with Lee County that will
permit this road to compete successfully later this year for
some of the $500,000 set aside each year by Lee County for
"core" median landscaping of existing roads.
The County Roadway Landscape Advisory Committee has established
criteria for selecting which existing county road segments will
receive median landscaping each year. This segment of Koreshan was
not chosen by the Committee last year because it did not score
enough points using these criteria.
One way to increase the points scored by a road segment is to
have a community partner willing to pay for maintenance of the
landscaping for a period of years after it is installed. Analysis of
competing projects indicates that a maintenance partnering agreement
should permit Koreshan to compete successfully for funding later
this year.
If we succeed in this effort this segment of Koreshan will be
landscaped late next year or early in 2004. For their insight and
financial support of this important project our thanks go out to:
• Keystone Custom Homes, developers of
Rookery Point and the
Estero Golf Resort;
• Leavitt Homes, developers of The
Cascades
• Development Associates, developers of Villages of Bernwood;
and
• The Paul H. Freeman Trust, developers of Creekside CPD
• The following table summarizes the status of all of Estero's 19
roadway landscaping projects:
|
Number |
Roadway |
Segment |
Status |
|
1 |
Corkscrew |
From US 41 to Sandy Lane |
Core Completed |
|
2 |
Three Oaks |
From Williams to Coconut |
Upgrade Completed |
|
3 |
Coconut |
From Three Oaks to US 41 |
Upgrade Completed |
|
4 |
Coconut |
From US 41 to the Hyatt Coconut Point
Resort |
Upgrade Completed |
|
5 |
Corkscrew |
From Sandy Lane to Corkscrew Woodlands |
Core in 2002 |
|
6 |
Ben Hill Griffin |
From North Estero Boundary to Corkscrew
Road |
Upgrade in 2002 |
|
7 |
Corkscrew |
From Ben Hill Griffin to I-75 |
Upgrade in 2002 |
|
8 |
Three Oaks |
From Corkscrew Road to Williams Road |
Core in 2003 |
|
9 |
Corkscrew |
From Corkscrew Woodlands to east of
I-75 |
Upgrade in 2003 |
|
10 |
Koreshan |
From US 41 to Three Oaks |
Core in 2003 |
|
11 |
US 41 |
From Bonita Springs to Corkscrew Road |
Core in 2004 |
|
12 |
Three Oaks |
From North Estero Boundary to Corkscrew
Road |
Core When Widened |
|
13 |
Koreshan |
From Ben Hill Griffin to I-75 |
Upgrade when Constructed |
|
14 |
Koreshan |
From I-75 to Three Oaks |
Core When Widened |
|
15 |
Three Oaks |
From Coconut Road to Bonita Springs |
Upgrade when Constructed |
|
16 |
US 41 |
From Corkscrew Road to North Estero
Boundary |
Core When Widened |
|
17 |
Sandy Lane |
From Bonita Springs to Williams Road |
Upgrade when Constructed |
|
18 |
Sandy Lane |
From Williams Road to Corkscrew Road |
Upgrade when Constructed |
|
19 |
Corkscrew |
From Ben Hill Griffin to Habitat East
Boundary |
Upgrade when Constructed |
Late in April the Estero Fire District Board approved an $8.8
million, seven year loan to fund three new fire stations and related
equipment and an administration building. The Board also decided to
sell the property on which its original fire house, built in 1964,
is located. The new station replacing this firehouse, located at
County Road and US 41--just north of the Estero River, will be named
after George Horne, Estero's first fire chief. Revenues derived from
the sale of the original firehouse will also be used to construct
and equip the new stations.
The existing
Bonita Community Health Center, located on the
southeast corner of U S 41 and Coconut Road in
The Brooks Grand
Plaza, will expand later this year by adding an 18,000 square foot
cardiac care center and additional doctors' offices. In addition the
Center is considering the purchase of 11.6 acres adjacent to their
existing facility for future health care development. The
per-acre-appraised value of the land under consideration is almost
30% more than the 1998 purchase price of the land under the existing
Health Center.
Site preparation has begun on
this multi-family residential
project located on the east side of Three Oaks Parkway just south of
Koreshan Boulevard. This property was originally zoned residential
in 1993. In 1999 the zoning was amended to authorize 277 bonus
density units, bringing the total number of multifamily units
possible on the site to a total of 692 units. Since that zoning
amendment the property has been sold.
