A new “Eco-Historic” planning study won acceptance by the Estero Village Council on June 17 that previously ignored a piece of the village’s beloved heritage.
With changes. Sort of.
Planning and design consultant LandDesign from Orlando promised the city Planning Zoning and Design Board June 16 that they would amend the maps and language in the plan to acknowledge the existence and importance of the Happehatchee Center, the center slice of what’s called the Estero River Park on the river’s south shore.
Advisory board says stress Happehatchee – council passes
The council motion did not direct the changes, however. The council unanimously accepted the plan as written, not incorporating the advisory board’s requested changes.
Community Development Director Mary Gibbs said notations would be added to the plan acknowledging Happahatchee.
Happehatchee is a Calusa word meaning Happy River. Its 5 acres was gifted to the village in 2019. It was the home of noted long-time environmental activist Ellen Peterson. Both Peterson and the property – stretching from Corkscrew Road to the Estero River – were and are much loved by the environmental community, members of which bristled when the $450,000 plan included nary a mention of either one.
“Happehatchee was egregiously omitted,” said Nora Demers, a 30-year resident, FGCU biology professor, board member of the Responsible Growth Management Coalition and a friend of Peterson.
Study looks at 1,000 Estero acres
Happahatchee is a small piece of the 1,000 or-so acres that was included in the study. The area includes much of Estero’s early history and cultural resources, from the Koreshan historic site where Cyrus Teed and his band of hollow-Earthers settled in the late 1800s to the state champion Mysore Fig tree on East Broadway to the Boomer House, a home built in 1916 by original Koreshan Lucius Boomer that is still occupied by Nola Boomer, whose late husband was Lucius Boomer’s grandson.
The Mysore fig was planted in 1896 at 9011 Broadway Ave. East, having been imported from Mysore in southern India. At almost 100 feet tall and with a crown of more than 130 feet and with its characteristic roots over 6 feet high it is one of the largest of its kind in America.
The Boomer House will transfer to state ownership upon Nola Boomer’s demise.
All of these features were cited in the study. Happehatchee was not.
Demers cited an agreement between the village and the Happahatchee group that arranged the village ownership.
Village not living up to gift agreement, advocates say
“The village has not lived up to the spirit or to the agreement,” she said. “It’s not merely downplayed. It’s erased.”
Mary Gibbs, the village community development director, said there was no intention of erasing or slighting Happahatchee.
Gibbs spent many years working for Lee County, knew Peterson and was there when her home – a building moved from Buckingham Airfield in 1947 – was declared a historic resource in 2012.
“I appreciate the passion,” she said. “One thing I want you to know is there was no intention to erase Happehatchee.”
Happehatchee supporters were not so sure.
“I’m really bewildered by this plan,” said Patty Whitehead, a long-time Estero resident and another RGMC member. “The survey never said what should happen to that 67 acres. It’s the public’s land. The citizens’ land.”
The 67 acres is on both sides of the river, with Happehatchee on the south side.
Pushing for preservation
“We need to preserve the north side if the river as part of the environmental area,” said Catherine Backos, Whitehead’s mother. “It should be green space – part of the overall park.”
The plan envisions a “village center” across the river from Happehatchee, with commercial and residential development.
Gibbs stressed that sketches in the plan – including one that shows a playground where Peterson’s house now stands – are only concepts and that any decision going forward would have to be made by the village council.
“I was deeply disappointed at the village council meeting this morning,” Demers wrote afterward. “It is unfortunate that acceptance … may now be interpreted as support for the intensive development concepts shown for the public lands north of the Estero River.”
The council did have some good news for Peterson’s friends and the river. The Estero River Park will see bronze plaques installed to honor Peterson and Don Eslick, who for years leveraged county investment in the community before incorporation then helped spearhead the movement that created the village in 2014.
Eslick and a band of fellow volunteers in the wealthy village held incorporation over Lee commissioners heads for years, using the high village values – and the property taxes they create – to convince commissioners to boost county spending in the area.
Village Manager Steve Sarkozy told council the Peterson plaque will honor her legacy and Happehatchee.
The village Capital Improvement Program the council approved also had good news for the river. The 5-year building budget was adjusted to add spot dredging in the river, work that will make the river safer for boat traffic while increasing its ability to carry water through the village and reduce flooding.
Demers is also drafting bylaws for a new group she’s calling Friends of Estero River Park to advocate for Happehatchee and the land on both sides of the river.
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Charlie Whitehead covers Lee County and Fort Myers. Reach him at Cwhitehead@gannett.com
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This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Happehatchee means happy river, but the property’s advocates are not
Reporting by Charlie Whitehead, Fort Myers News-Press & Naples Daily News / Fort Myers News-Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Charlie Whitehead, Fort Myers News-Press & Naples Daily News | USA TODAY Network
