Lee County commissioners will consider a major amendment for the Southeast Lee Community Plan on Wednesday, August 19 that could pave the way for development.
At a July 27 airing to the Local Planning Agency the proposed changes, meant to deal with 11 developer-proposed amendments received since 2023, the commissioner-appointed board gave the amendments a unanimous 4-0 approval.
All the developer representatives present at that hearing had praise for the amendments. Three environmental groups who attended see it differently.
Slow down, say environmentalists
“I plan to ask for a pause in the process to ensure that adequate evaluation occurs before any changes are made to the management of this sensitive area,” said Matt DePaolis, environmental policy director for the Sanibel-Captive Conservation Foundation.
DePaolis told the Local Planning Agency when that advisory board recommended commission approval on July 27 that the county seems to be in a rush to say Yes to the 11 developer proposals without any real evaluation of whether it should say Yes.
DePaolis was not alone. Representatives from the Conservancy of Southwest Florida and Florida Audubon echoed his concerns.
Now the South Florida Wildlands Association has joined in. The SFWA has already sued Collier County over the loss of panther habitat there.
Environmental group has sued over panther habitat before
“SFWA’s ongoing work on Florida panther conservation focuses on resisting rapid development across remaining rural lands in Southwest Florida — home to the last breeding puma population in the eastern United States,” the group’s web site states. “Through public testimony, written comments, and engagement with decision-makers at the county, state, and federal level, SFWA has consistently warned that continued habitat loss — now reduced to less than five percent of the panther’s historic range in the Southeast U.S. — places the species on a direct path toward extinction.”
“Absent meaningful policy change, SFWA anticipates further legal action to prevent irreversible harm to Florida’s most iconic endangered species.”
In an email Matthew Schwartz, SFWA executive director, urged opposition to the amendment. He said the group’s focus on panther habitat loss in Collier County is shifting north.
“Now the focus is shifting to neighboring Lee County,” he said.
Schwartz said that the elimination of a 300,000-square-foot cap on non-residential development and the removal of a Priority Restoration Strategy could mean more habitat loss and fragmentation as well as increased groundwater consumption and more traffic.
County planners, presenting the amendment to the LPA, said they had gone beyond what is required in seeking public input on the changes. They said that the 300,000-square-foot cap is not feasible, as previous approvals and lawsuit settlements have already gone past that number. They claim that allowing increased commercial and retail use will mean people who will live in the already-approved residential development will not have to drive as far to access services and jobs.
Southeast Lee has historically seen only low-density residential, agricultural uses and mining. It is dominated by the Density Reduction-Groundwater Resource Area, an 83,000-acre swath east of the interstate and south of State Road 82 that was created in 1990 to eliminate a state challenge to the county growth management plan.
Those involved back then are concerned too. Bill Spikowski was a Lee planner and growth management coordinator who helped create the DR-GR and was involved in amending the plan for the area as recently as 2010.
Spikowski said that the changes seem designed to give the developers what they asked for.
“I know where the county’s going, and it’s not good,” he said. “They’re throwing stuff out because developers have asked for changes. It goes from science-based to ‘Here’s what the developers want.’”
The August 19 hearing will take place in commission chambers at the Old Lee County Courthouse at 9:30 a.m. Commissioners will be asked to transmit the amendment to the state for review. After state review it will be returned, possibly with suggested changes. Commissioners would then hold a hearing to adopt the changes.
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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: Lee commissioners to consider growth plan changes – environmental groups oppose
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
