Estero Development ReportVolume 8, Number 9, Issued February, 2009 February Opportunities for Citizen Participation In Protecting Estero's Quality of Life
Index
Estero Community WebsiteDuring 2008 about 81,900 persons visited this site to learn about Estero. During 2007 only about 72,000 persons visited the site, thus our website traffic increased by 14% from year to year in spite of the economic slowdown. The community groups sponsoring the site are: Estero Community Planning Panel (ECPP) Recent Intrusion of Airplane Noise and PollutionOn October 1, 2008 the Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) implemented a permanent change to the arrival and departure paths for commercial aircraft arriving and departing from the Southwest Florida International Airport (SWFIA) from cities in the northeast. As a result over 100 flights per day, instead of reaching southwest Florida from over the Gulf of Mexico and approaching the Southwest Florida International Airport’s runway from the west, are now being directed down the middle of the state past the airport and over densely populated sections of Estero, Bonita Springs and Fort Myers Beach before completing the same final approach path. Fortunately the Brooks Concerned Citizens (BCC) became aware of this problem and has been working on it over the last few months. During that period they have:
On January 7th the leaders of Estero’s community organizations met with the City Council of Bonita Springs and discussed this issue with them. They responded enthusiastically and agreed to take up the issue at their next City Council meeting. The Bonita Springs City Council has now gone on record as seeking a change in these routes. On January 14th the BCC and the ECCL met with Bob Ball, the administrator of Southwest Florida International Airport, his staff and Lee County Commissioner Ray Judah to discuss the issue and to obtain their recommendations for remedying the situation. The Airport Authority states that they were not informed about the changes until shortly before they were implemented and indicated that they told the FAA that it should not be done without public hearings that would provide them with valuable community input. In anticipation of our meeting the Airport Authority and Commissioner Judah contacted U. S. Representative Connie Mack’s office, our member of the U. S. House and a member of the Aviation Subcommittee of the House Transportation Committee. Mack’s office was not aware of the impact of the change upon the residents of south Lee County until that call. A recent press report quoted Stephanie DuBois, Congressman Mack’s press secretary, as saying “We are working with the…FAA to understand precisely…what, if anything, can be done about it”. Since October 1st the BCC and the ECCL have been contacted by hundreds of Estero residents expressing concerns about the impact of the planes upon their ability to live here in peace and quiet, with air pollution concerns and concerns about the impact these flights will have on the value of their property. Many of these Estero residents have spent many hours trying to find out who at the FAA would listen to and respond to their concerns. The best that most of them could obtain was an anonymous email address 9-ASO-CustomerService@faa.gov . As a result of this grassroots effort the Southern Regional Headquarters of the FAA on January 16th put out a “Fact Sheet” on the matter. A copy of the fact sheet can be viewed at http://esterofl.org/new/#Act_on_Airport_Noise . The FAA Fact SheetAs can be seen on this website the new route brings all the flights from the northeast over the 40,000 to 50,000 residents of the Estero and Bonita Springs communities of Wildcat Run, Stoneybrook, the four communities of The Brooks, The Colony and Pelican Landing and out over the northern end of Big Hickory Island in Bonita Springs and much of Ft. Myers Beach. The FAA Fact Sheet defends the new policy by referring in several places to a 4,000 foot minimum altitude over these areas, thus eliminating the need for public hearings. For example in the Environmental Compliance section they state: “Environmental specialists in the FAA Air Traffic Organization thoroughly reviewed FLOWCAR procedures before they were implemented. All procedural changes were made at altitudes above 4,000 feet, and did not result in increased noise impacts according to Federal standards. As a result, further environmental study was not warranted, and the FAA issued an environmental determination called a categorical exclusion. This means the procedures were excluded from further environmental review.” In reality however the Airport Authority and all our experts acknowledge that once the airline pilot informs the control tower at the airport that he has the runway in sight and there are no other airplanes landing from the north the air traffic controller typically releases the pilot from the prescribed route and altitude and the pilot can begin to descend and turn north cutting the route short and saving time and fuel. As a result it is not uncommon for flights to fly at low altitudes over other Estero communities including Coconut Shores, Meadowbrook, Marsh Landing, Fountain Lakes, Pelican Sound and Breckenridge. That is the shorter route also depicted on the map on the website. The FAA Fact Sheet concludes with the following: “The airport’s Noise Compatibility Program (Part 150 Study,) which is scheduled for an update in Fall 2009. During the study, the FAA will work closely with the Lee County Port Authority and surrounding communities to address noise concerns, and help develop ways to reduce noise over residential areas near the airport. We encourage interested citizens to participate in the study.” You can be sure that the BAC, the ECCL and many concerned south Lee County citizens will be following up on this statement to learn how and when we can participate. In the meantime the BAC and the ECCL continue to work on this issue. Your help would be appreciated with the following tasks:
If you wish to help on any of these areas or have ideas for the committee please volunteer through the following website http://esterofl.org/new/#Act_on_Airport_Noise . Volunteers Needed for the March 28th “Arts Estero 2009” GalaBack in 2006 the Estero Council of Community Leaders (ECCL) sponsored “Arts Estero 2009” at the Hyatt Coconut Point Resort. The event attracted about 15 local arts organizations and gave them an opportunity to present themselves to about 500 Estero residents through information booths and stage presentations. “Arts Estero 2009” will return this season at the Estero Community Park on Saturday, March 28, 2009. This year ECCL will be partnering with the Estero Community Improvement Foundation, the Estero Art League, Estero Historical Society, Friends of South County Regional Library, Brooks Concerned Citizens, Gulf Coast Symphony Orchestra, Greater Estero Cultural Arts Council, and Estero Community Planning Panel. Bev MacNellis of Marsh Landing, active in many community affairs, has agreed to chair the event along with an advisory committee consisting of representatives of many arts organizations with commitments to Estero. The advisory committee has met several times to plan this major community event. The goal of the Committee is to establish “Arts Estero 2009” as Estero’s premier, annual community event. In order to make this annual event Estero’s premier community event the committee is seeking support from all community organizations, residential communities, businesses and individual volunteers. The committee is seeking more sponsors, advertisers, small financial contributors, performers, artists, arts and crafts participants and volunteers for projects prior to the event and workers on the day of the event. To learn more about how you can help and to sign up or contribute see the following webpage http://esterofl.org/new/arts-estero-2009.htm or call Bev MacNellis at 498-0678 or email her at Beverlyann@comcast.net. Attractions Already CommittedEstero residents and guests will be presented with a day full of continuous live entertainment on and off stage. Entertainment already committed includes the Breckenridge Singers, Brooks Brothers, Mud Bone, a professional jazz group, the Estero River Cloggers of Florida and the Gulf Coast Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Maestro Andrew Kurtz, who will bring the day’s event to a close beginning at 4:00 PM with a full program of big band sounds. There will be art exhibits, food booths, information booths, art for sale, demonstrations and other displays of interest starting at 11 a.m. and continuing throughout the day. South Lee County Hospital Committee UpdateOn January 7th the ECCL and the Bonita Springs City Council met for their semiannual meeting. The agenda included the first discussion by the City Council of the South Lee County Hospital Committee co-chaired by Mayor Ben Nelson and Don Eslick, Chairman of the ECCL. The representatives of both communities agreed with Mayor Nelson when he said that this issue alone warranted the two communities working together on issues of regional significance. On January 15th the Committee met to discuss and approve the Report of the Needs Assessment sub-committee, chaired by Dave Shellenbarger. A copy of this report may be viewed at http://esterofl.org/EsteroLife/healthcare/FinalReport1-22-09.pdf . The report has been transmitted to Southwest Florida’s three medical systems…. Lee Memorial, NCH and Physicians Regional …for them to review before meeting with the Mayor Nelson, Don Eslick and the members of the Needs Assessment committee during the month of February. In addition the Committee’s Public Relations sub-committee is developing and implementing a community awareness program. More information on the Hospital Committee and local emergency care facilities and services may be obtained at http://esterofl.org/EsteroLife/healthcare/index.htm . Red Sox Spring Training SiteOn January 22nd the Lee County Red Sox Advisory Committee met to narrow the list of proposed Red Sox spring training sites and reduced the number of sites from 13 to 9. The Colonial Homes site in Bonita Springs and the Midtowne Estero (also called Draper Technology) development at Corkscrew Road and Three Oaks Parkway were among the four sites eliminated. The Committee plans to meet with each remaining applicant during the week of February 23rd before making a recommendation to the BOCC. The BOCC will make the final decision sometime after they get the Committee’s recommendation before its June 1st deadline. Some of the comments of the Committee at this meeting may have an influence on the prospects of the remaining Estero applicants. They are:
During January the ECCL Committee on the Red Sox site met with representatives of the Edison Farms and the University Highlands sites to learn more about those proposals. BackgroundOn November 1, 2008 Lee County and the Boston Red Sox signed a 29 page agreement committing the County to provide the Red Sox a new spring training ballpark and training facility (Project Site) in south Lee County by a “target date” of December 1, 2011 “but in no event later than December 1, 2012 (Outside Date). ”The agreement specifies a 30 year lease commitment, an 80 acre site for the Red Sox and contains a detailed description of the 9,999 seat facility plus capacity for another 2,000 fans. On December 9th Lee County signed a 30 year lease with the Boston Red Sox for a Spring Training facility in south Lee County. The three remaining Estero sites are: Edison Farms…the owners of this site has been trying hard for many years to gain development approval for his 4,000, mostly wetland, acres east of I-75 adjacent to The Brooks. Their initiatives include the Coconut I-75 Interchange earmark; Water District approval of a four mile ditch along the western and southern boundaries of the property and Water District pressure to install five large culverts under I-75 without proof that they were needed. Edison Farms is offering free land to the County for the Red Sox site and also is offering land on the site to FGCU, reportedly for a football field, and is working with the National Swimming Center Corporation for a Swim USA facility for training of Olympic and other swimmers on the site. This landowner is offering the County 412 acres free of charge but the land is only accessible if the County builds a road from Corkscrew Road south to the property about 2 miles to the south at an estimated cost of about $30 million. The County owns some of the right-of-way for this road inasmuch as it is the planned route for the controversial and expensive CR 951, a road that has not been found fiscally feasible and has been included in the County’s long-range 2030 plan with tolling as the likely funding source. North Point…this property consists of 102 acres located just north of Coconut Point on the northeast corner of Williams Road and US 41. The property is now owned by the Lutgert Company. It was zoned for 670,000 square feet of commercial, 150 residential units and a 150 room hotel prior to Lutgert acquiring the property several years ago. This area will be intensively developed, both commercially and residentially. The property will ultimately be surrounded by residential development within a short distance. Thus it may also have some noise and lighting compatibility issues. University Highlands Ltd. Partnership…this 210 acre site, owned by Nassif Development of Naples, is located immediately north of Germaine Arena between I-75 and Ben Hill Griffin Parkway. It will soon be bordered on the north by the Estero Parkway Flyover. The Grandezza community is located immediately across Ben Hill Griffin from this site. Fire District Merger Study Gets UnderwayOn January 13th the Estero Fire District held a Town Hall Meeting to discuss the Fire District Consolidation Study for the Bonita Springs, Estero and San Carlos Park Fire Districts. The meeting opened with a presentation by Fire Chief Scott Vanderbrook outlining the procedures that the Districts’ consultant will follow and the opportunities for public input throughout the course of the study. This presentation was followed by a question and answer period for the 20 or so Estero community residents in attendance. The Estero Fire District was the only district involved in the Consolidation Study to sponsor this kind of community briefing. On January 22nd three representatives of Tridata Division of the Systems Planning Corporation met with the ten person committee of community leaders selected by the Fire District Board for continuing input. The Fire District has indicated that the names of the committee members will be posted on the District’s website… http://esterofire.org/ …but they have not yet been posted. Among the groups represented on the committee are: the ECPP, the ECCL, the Brooks Concerned Citizens (BCC) and the Estero Chamber of Commerce. During the later months of 2008 Tridata gathered much information about the three districts. During their January visit they met with each district to meet their key officials, discuss information gaps and to view firsthand the districts and the properties contained therein. During the next couple of months Tridata will be developing evaluations on each of the three districts. They will return to the area then for meetings with the districts and the citizens committee to determine the critical issues and to assess the consensus process. For more information on this important issue please visit the fire district web site (see address above). Finally, Fire Chief Vanderbrook has agreed to report on the study’s progress at each monthly ECCL meeting. BackgroundOn June 17th the three Fire District Boards, Bonita Springs, Estero and San Carlos Park, voted to approve a contract with System Planning Corporation, Tridata Division to evaluate the merger of the three districts. During July each of the three Fire District Boards voted to approve funding their share of the cost of this consulting contract. Each district will pay $40,162. During August each of the Board’s approved the contract with System Planning Corporation, Tridata Division. The study is expected to be completed in about six months, or about mid-2009. Density Reduction/Groundwater Resource (DR/GR) Area Planning Continues in 2009Recent HistoryIn September 2008, after two years of research and planning, the Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) made an important planning decision concerning the 83,000 acre Density Reduction/Groundwater Resource (DR/GR) area located just east of I-75 in Estero and Bonita Springs. They voted unanimously to concentrate mining in the DR/GR area in the traditional mining corridor along Alico Road and directed Lee County planning staff to develop the comprehensive plan amendments and land development code changes necessary to create a “Preferred Mining” area in this corridor that would consist primarily of existing mines and some of the land included in the long pending and litigated Florida Rock #2 mine application. One year earlier on September 11, 2007 the BOCC established a one year moratorium on mining applications for properties located in the DR/GR. At the time there were six pending DR/GR area mine applications. At that time only one of those applications was complete. The BOCC allowed that mine application, the Estero Group application, to continue the zoning process and postponed consideration of the other five applications until September 11, 2008. During the moratorium County staff completed a study of mining regulations in all Florida counties with a mining industry. On September 9, 2008 the BOCC voted to adopt a new chapter in the Land Development Code regulating the approval and operation of existing and new mines in Lee County based upon the best and most appropriate practices allowed in those other counties. Since the moratorium expired On September 10, 2008 the five pending mine applications and several new ones, many of them for large mines along east Corkscrew Road, have been in the approval process. If all these mines should be approved Estero would see thousands of dump trucks on its major roads every working day under normal economic conditions. Between September and December 2008 Lee County consultant continued work on a new water model for the watershed that includes the DR/GR. This model, when completed, will permit zoning applications to include in their evaluation their impact on the area’s water supply (80% of all Lee County drinking water comes from DR/GR wellfields) and the wetlands and ecosystem on and around the rezoned property. In addition the County negotiated with Dover Kohl and Associates, its DR/GR planning consultant, concerning the help that firm could provide to implement the numerous recommendations contained in the DR/GR plan they had prepared for the County earlier in 2008. Looking Ahead to DR/GR Planning in 2009During 2009 Dover Kohl and its six subcontractors will be performing the following projects for Lee County:
All of these projects were started during January except for the Land Development Code Changes which cannot be started until many of the Reports become available and the BOCC has adopted the recommendations contained in them that it deems appropriate. According to the County’s contract with Dover Kohl the earliest projects to be completed are the TDR report and the Lee Plan Future Land Use Map Changes both of which will be completed in about April, 2009. All the others except for the Land Development Code Change Report will be completed in June, 2009. The Land Development Code Change Report will be completed and debated during the second half of the year. During the year Dover Kohl is committed by contract to participate in five public meetings to discuss their finding and respond to questions by the BOCC and the public. Estero’s 2008 Housing Permits Continue Steep DeclineDuring 2008 Estero’s housing permits declined by about 62% from the prior year. During December 23 housing units, mostly single family homes, with a value of $6,559,775 were permitted in Estero. As the following table indicates 2008 continued the downward trend in new housing construction in Estero (and throughout the nation) that began nearly three years ago, in the spring of 2006. The County permitting information used in this report may be found at http://www.lee-county.com/dcd/Reports/EsteroReports.htm The following table shows how the 2008 permitted units compare with the prior eight years:
Permitted Commercial Building Values Continue SlowdownBuilding permits of all types issued during 2008 continued at a very slow pace. The value of commercial buildings permitted in Estero during 2008 totaled $39.3 million.
As the right hand column of the above table indicates Estero’s commercial development started to expand rapidly in 2004, peaking in 2006 with a total of $184.7 million (All figures are exclusive of the underlying land). The 2000 calendar year was exceptional because it was the year that the Hyatt Coconut Point Hotel and Resort was permitted. Estero’s commercial development during 2008 was Estero’s third lowest during the last 9 years, exceeding only 2002 and 2003. While Estero’s commercial development has slowed considerably since last year, many commercially zoned properties along US 41 and Corkscrew Road have been cleared, the sites prepared and the designs approved by the Estero Design Review Committee. Estero’s commercial growth is poised for expansion once the current slowdown is over. During 2008 the major projects that contributed to the year to date commercial development totals are:
REMINDER: The building values understate the cost of each residence or commercial building because it excludes the value of the underlying land. |
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