Estero Development Report
Volume 3, Number 9 Edited by ECCO--the Estero Concerned Citizens Organization
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Proposed Second Wal-Mart in EsteroWal-Mart has
requested the Estero Design Review Committee (EDRC) to schedule a
hearing for a second Wal-Mart superstore in Estero at the next
meeting of the EDRC at The second Proposed Superstore would be located on the northwest corner of US 41 and Coconut Road, only 3.7 miles from Wal-Mart's first proposed store at US 41 and Koreshan Boulevard. The 1998 zoning on this 46 acre property permits such a store to be built without the need for any zoning changes. Thus Wal-Mart is able to bypass the Estero Community Planning Panel, which conducts local public meetings on all zoning matters. Since the Board of County Commissioners has not yet approved our draft US 41 Overlay changes to the Lee County Land Development Code, the appearance standards that apply to all Corkscrew Roadprojects do not apply to this location. The Estero "Big Box Standards" also have not yet been approved by the BOCC and therefore are not enforceable on this project. On the other hand, "Concurrency Certificates" are issued in conjunction with Development Orders. Concurrency Certificates are issued by the County only after the road network adjacent to the project is deemed by County DOT staff to be adequate for the existing and expected traffic. Given the enormous amount of commercial development that has been approved for this area, it is possible that the County could find the area's road network -- primarily US 41 and Coconut Road-- to be insufficient after this store is opened until Sandy Lane and Three Oaks Parkway are completed. This store would be located immediately adjacent to homes in Marsh Landing and in Coconut Shores. Consequently, it is likely to raise many of the same issues that we have been wrestling with over the last year regarding the proposed Koreshan Boulevard store and its neighboring community, The Vines. Lee County has two policies that are designed to protect residents from the negative impact of new adjacent commercial development. They are:
Since residential development around this property has expanded greatly since it was zoned in 1998 the County may want to review the requirements of the existing zoning that attempt to implement these policies before approving the Development Order for the project. Wal-Mart has not yet submitted any project information to the EDRC but has indicated that they are not planning to use the same architectural design for that building as has been negotiated for the Koreshan store. This is unfortunate because all of the properties around the site have committed to a Mediterranean design. They include the existing Brooks Commerce Center, the Walden Center, the new Cole Taylor building in Coconut Square, the plans for all of Coconut Point extending from the Sanibel Steakhouse to Williams Road and the proposed dental office building in Coconut Square. In addition Wal-Mart has not scheduled meetings with the residents of Marsh Landing and Coconut Shores before scheduling the community-wide (EDRC) hearing unlike the Koreshan store procedure where Wal-Mart met first with the residents of The Vines. Hopefully, Wal-Mart will postpone the EDRC meeting until March and schedule meetings with the residents of Marsh Landing and Coconut Shores prior to that meeting. Koreshan Wal-Mart Progress ReportDuring January Lee County zoning staff found
Wal-Mart's zoning application to be complete
enough to set a date for a public hearing by a County Hearing
Examiner on
The Need to Widen US 41County transportation staff have indicated to Wal-Mart that the store cannot receive a development order (DO) nor begin construction until the segment of US 41 adjacent to the store has been programmed and budgeted for 6-laning within three years of the issuance of that DO. At present this segment of US 41 is not programmed until state fiscal year 2008-09 which begins in October 2008. As a consequence Wal-Mart has offered to pay the interest on a County low interest loan to Florida DOT that would permit the programming of this segment to be accelerated by two years to fiscal 2006-07. Although the County would very much like to accelerate construction of this road segment such a commitment cannot legally be tied to the zoning. Consequently the proposal has not been accepted by the County and may not be resolved until the zoning process has been completed, probably in May, June or July. Forthcoming Zoning DiscussionsMeanwhile the Wal-Mart Committee of the Estero Council of Community Leaders (ECCL) has met with County zoning staff to learn about the latest changes in the development plan and to discuss its concerns. Wal-Mart has offered to provide the committee with a briefing on its zoning request and its Development Order application, now that both have been filed with the county. This meeting is expected to be scheduled for early February. After that meeting the Council of Community leaders will review all the outstanding issues and prepare for a negotiating session with Wal-Mart. After that meeting the ECCL will decide how they will testify at the Hearing Examiner's hearing on April 1st and later before the Board of County Commissioners. Wal-Mart has also been meeting with the leaders of The Vines regarding a possible private south access road to that community from Koreshan Boulevard. Such a road would permit Vines residents to go south on US 41 without having to use the dangerous existing US 41 intersection. Village with a VisionOnce again this winter and spring the Estero Council of Community Leaders is sponsoring its “Village With a Vision” educational program for residents throughout Estero. The program includes a 20 minute Power Point presentation and a 40 minute panel discussion. The program traces the history of Estero from 1500 AD to the present and explains what the community is doing to manage its dynamic growth. It also shows how our community will look in a couple of years when our commercial corridors are completed. Last year Jim Ramsburg and his panel of “Estero All-Stars” presented this program to over 1000 Estero residents. ‘Village With a Vision” presentations can be scheduled from now through April. If your community, neighborhood organization, church group or service organization have not yet participated in this free program and want to know what is going on in Estero, call Jim at 949-0362 or email him at jpramsburg@hotmail.com. Sandy Lane Alignment StudyDuring January two additional Sandy Lane Alignment Study presentations were conducted by Lee County DOT and its consultant, Kris Cella. This concludes the public input phase of the Alignment Study. Now the consultant will complete their research and prepare their recommendations. Once complete the recommendations will be presented to a public workshop for discussion prior to being finalized and presented to the Bonita City Council and the BOCC for their modification or approval. The Northern AlignmentThe first meeting was held in San Carlos Park and focused upon the alternative routes between Corkscrew Road and the connection to Oriole Road, an existing road in San Carlos Park. Over 150 people attended and the testimony was dominated by San Carlos Park residents who were opposed to connecting Sandy Lane to Oriole Road because they believe it would increase current speeding and stop sign violations. Prior to that meeting about 60 residents on north Estero communities met to discuss three alternative routes for Sandy Lane between Corkscrew Road and Koreshan Boulevard. Andy Getch of Lee DOT attended the meeting to observe the discussion. This group reached consensus on the following three positions:
If these goals are not satisfied a majority of the group would probably oppose extension of the road north of Corkscrew Road. The Southern AlignmentLater in January
the City of Unfortunately the options presented by the consultant for this route do not appear to be the most feasible and safe. The two western routes would appear to connect with Old 41 too close to the existing Old 41/US 41 intersection and the eastern route unnecessarily divides the San Carlos Estates community and would displace far more homes than necessary. At the same time they did not consider a route that would cross the railroad tracts through the junk yard and hug the eastern boundary of the rail right-of-way through the Rinker property to a connection with Old 41 at or near Signal Road. Hopefully it is not too late for the County and City to consider this less disruptive route. Now that the public hearings are complete it is time for the BOCC and the Bonita City Council and administration to begin discussions regarding joint planning, financing and construction of this important gap-filling road. By 2007, after Old 41 has been widened to four lanes, Bonita Springs and Estero will be served by a four lane Sandy Lane from Corkscrew Road to Pelican Colony Boulevard and a four lane Old 41 from US 41 to Terry Street. Unless Sandy Lane is extended from Pelican Colony Boulevard to Old 41 we will have a seven mile north-south corridor with a one mile gap in the middle. Next StepsCella and Associates, the County's Alignment Study consultant, will use this public input to prepare their draft recommendations for the County. Sometime in February when these recommendations are complete, the County and its consultant will conduct a workshop for further public review before finalizing their report. All Estero residents are encouraged to watch the newspapers for the time and place of the workshop and come prepared to support the recommendations that best satisfy our transportation needs. Three Oaks Parkway South FundingOn February 3rd the BOCC is expected to approve a County DOT staff recommendation that would allocate $4,086,000 of the $6,270,000 paid by the developers of Coconut Point in road impact fees during December to construction of Three Oaks Parkway between Coconut Road and E. Terry Street in Bonita Springs. This money would become available for this project in October of this year. At present County DOT expects to begin construction of this segment in mid-2005 and to complete the road in early 2007. If permitting by the regional water district and the U.S. Corp of Engineers and right-of-way acquisition can be completed sooner then construction may begin closer to the beginning of the budgeted fiscal year, October 2004. The balance of the payment, $2,184,000 has been paid by the County to the City of Bonita Springs for use in widening Old 41 from US 41 to Rosemary Drive. Residential Growth in Estero -- 2000 through 2003During the last four years over 7,000 new housing units have been permitted in Estero. The total building value of these units exceeds $1.1 billion exclusive of the related land value.
As the table shows the number of units permitted has declined during the last two years compared to Estero's peak growth years of 2000 and 2001. The primary cause of the decline is the rapid build out of Pelican Sound and The Brooks. Pelican Sound's peak permitting period was 2000 with about 650 housing units. The project's permitting declined to about 250 in 2001 and less than 50 in 2002. Meanwhile The Brooks peaked in 2001 with about 900 housing units permitted. Both 2000 and 2002 were very strong years for The Brooks with over 600 units permitted in each year. Last year units permitted in The Brooks fell to less than 300 units.
Thus the dramatic expansion of The Brooks in 2001 offset the sharp decline in Pelican Sound permits. While the decline in Brooks permitting during 2002 and 2003 fully accounted for Estero's overall permitting decline. New Areas of Growth in 2003During 2003 two new developments, The Cascades and Villagio, each permitted over 250 housing units in their first year of marketing. Both of these projects will be major contributors to Estero's growth during the next few years. Two second year projects, Colonial Oaks and the Hyatt Timeshares, added about 100 units during 2003. Colonial Oaks permitted all its 100 housing units in just two years. Other recently initiated residential communities, The Rookery and Grandezza, continued as substantial sources of residential growth during 2003. Next month we will report on our housing unit permitting projections for 2004-2008. In addition to all the residential communities that will continue to develop during 2004, three major residential communities will complete site preparation and begin building new housing units. They are Bella Lago, a Toll brothers project, with zoning for over 400 units; Bella Terra, a U. S. Homes project, with zoning for 1,824 housing units and a Coconut Point housing development with about 450 units. The developers of The Meadows of Pelican Sound, a 250 units, project, recently filed for a development order in order to prepare their site for development soon. In addition two smaller projects are just getting underway: Estero Palms with 32 units and Estero River Estates with 94 units. Finally during 2003 two new housing developments were zoned but are not expected to begin substantial construction during 2004. They are Longwood Villas with zoning for over 200 housing units and Marbella Estates with about 200 units. Coconut Point Progress ReportLate in December the developers of Coconut Point paid the County $6.1 million, the first of two payments that the developer is required to pay the County to improve the road system that will support the development. The County, in turn, paid the City of Bonita Springs $2.3 million to help the City to pay for the widening of Old 41 between US 41 and Rosemary Drive. In December of this year the developers are required to pay the County an additional $8.6 million, the final installment in road fees. On January 27th The Simon Group announced some of the tenants that will occupy the first phase of Coconut Point's retail center. This phase will consist of 40 to 50 stores containing 600,000 square feet of retail space surrounding a 15 acre lake. This is Simon's "Community Center" with a scheduled opening date of October 2005. Some of the larger stores in the Community Center will be Best Buy, T J Maxx, Sports Authority, DSW, Petsmart and Ross Dress for Less. The balance of the Community Center will be occupied by smaller stores and restaurants The "Town Center", that will appear to be an old town main street fronted by a variety of buildings all of Mediterranean design, will open in September the following year (2006). The Town Center will consist of about 100 stores containing about 620,000 square feet of retail. The announced anchors in this phase are an 180,000 square foot Dillard's and a 93,000 square foot Muvico twenty screen theatre. In addition the Town Center is expected to include a major book store, a hotel, 80 to 90 smaller stores and several restaurants. The 2004 ScheduleBOCC approval of the Development Agreement is expected in February. This is the document that details how the developer and the county will meet their public responsibilities for roads, housing and environmental impacts. Zoning for Coconut Point requires the developers to prepare appearance standards for the entire 483 acre site that must be approved by the County. The developers will present the appearance standards to the Estero Council of Community Leaders during February. The Council will appoint a Committee to review the standards and to work with the developers and County staff to ensure that they are consistent with the appearance standards established by the community for other commercial projects during the last several years. Site preparation for both the Community Center and Town Center is scheduled to begin in about 6 months (June/July). Construction of the Community Center is scheduled to begin in about 8 months (September) with Town Center construction expected to begin one year from now, in January 2005. Construction of Sandy Lane from Corkscrew Road to Pelican Colony Boulevard is scheduled to begin later this year, about September, 2004. North Point DRI Progress ReportThis 102 acre project located on the east side of US 41 between Williams Road and the Corkscrew Village Shopping Center has been found "sufficient" by the Regional Planning Council. This means that Lee County can now begin the zoning process for this major Estero project, our third largest after Coconut Point and the Miromar Discount Mall. If approved as requested it will contain 550,000 square feet of retail space, 120,000 square feet of office, a 150 room hotel and 150 housing units. The project is being developed by many of the Coconut Point owners.
The development combines 9 parcels of
land with 6 owners into a unified project that uses many Estero Plan
and Main Street Overlay principals and is designed to compliment the
Coconut Point Town Center immediately to the south. Thus almost 3 miles on the east side of
Also during January a Lee County Hearing Examiner heard testimony on the developer's request for an amendment to the Lee County Comprehensive Plan that would allow this type of project on the site. Estero Design Review Committee (EDRC)On January 14th the EDRC reviewed in great detail the following two new commercial projects:
The EDRC made the following suggestions regarding the Stilwell Solar project:
The EDRC made the following suggestions regarding the Elit USA project:
Finally the architects for Embassy Suites, also located in the Estero Interstate Commerce Park, presented a greatly improved landscape plan for that project. After reviewing that plan the EDRC voted to send a letter to Lee County authorizing the County to begin processing the Development Order application for the project with the understanding that the developer will submit to further review of the architecture and landscaping by the EDRC. |
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