Generally the site plan looks and feels forced on the parcel, EDRC suggests the Light Industrial portion of the parcel be rezoned to Commercial to allow for a more suitable location and orientation of the building and parking areas, this would also give the citizens of Estero more opportunity to express concerns about issues not dealt with by the EDRC
Many citizens expressed concerns over issues which are normally zoning level issues which would normally be negotiated during meetings with the ECPP (i.e. traffic, noise, pollution, environmental impacts, use compatibility, etc.), EDRC suggested the Wal-mart representatives hold individual public meetings with the neighboring communities to discuss and attempt to alleviate these concerns
Proposed 18’ tall wall on west side of building to screen HVAC/Condensing Units, not on plan, 10’ wall along north side of building, plan shows only 6’ wall
Retention pond and dry detention areas should be redesigned to allow for a much more sinuous lake edge and increased edge to area ratio
4’ tall landscaped berm to be built on north side along existing preserve
EDRC suggest elevations illustrating buffer plantings at the time of installation be prepared to present to the EDRC and public at all future meetings, EDRC will suggest increased number of trees, palms, and/or shrubs following review of the elevations
Suggest continuous hedges in parking-lot “dog bone” islands
Recommend planting entire U. S. 41 buffer (including not-yet-sold outparcels) prior to C.O. for the Wal-Mart store
Suggest much heavier plantings on East buffer to match required plantings across US 41 to be installed along the
Coconut Point DRI parcel
Larger canopy trees (45 Gallon Container, 14’-16’ OA min.) suggested
Suggest increased density of plantings along east side of building (near RIRO)
EDRC suggests applicant check building perimeter planting areas would like this to exceed county code minimum (10% gross floor area plus an additional 5% gross floor area for large shopping/retail developments)
Suggest widening median at northernmost U. S. 41 entry for larger planting area (will see back corner of building from this entrance)
EDRC suggests applicant use any landscape areas that have been intentionally increased or widened to incorporate additional plant material, otherwise what’s the point of the added landscape area (an example of this was the enlarged southern most parking islands, the applicant allowed for greater planting area, but did not take full advantage of the increased area to help buffer Coconut Road)
Sidewalks suggested in 3 main parking-lot medians—COMMITTED BY APPLICANT
Site contains 106 more parking spaces than code requires, EDRC recommends applicant deletes some of the required parking spaces to allow for more building perimeter landscape and interior parking island landscape
Suggest moving upgrade landscape from parking-lot end caps to front of building to satisfy 5% county requirement (an upgraded south buffer along Coconut road should render the larger south parking-lot islands unnecessary)
Suggest using plantings around building in “important” spots, landscape around building should be designed with emphasis on breaking up the mass of the building, and all proposed landscape species and their installed heights should be specified to read on building façade at the time of installation
Traffic calming – currently painted markings to be used, EDRC suggested a material change in paving at front of the building to calm traffic
Similar paving material changes should be utilized to accent all pedestrian crossings as well as paving materials to accent and upgrade vehicular entrances to the site
Suggest palm upgrade in main entry median (instead of queen palms)
Suggest increasing native tree count (Sabals instead of Queen Palms in other areas)
Recommend increased architectural variety for other 3 sides of building as well as upgrading the front detailing
Color-scheme discussed, no consensus reached as architecture is likely to undergo radical change
Suggest creating larger planting areas to incorporate large trees and palms between cupolas in front of building
Suggest matching signage to accepted Koreshan plan
The Estero citizens present at the meeting preferred Mediterranean Architecture style of proposed Koreshan building
