Greater Pine Island Civic Association discusses Cape Coral’s recent annexations
At the June 7 meeting of the Greater Pine Island Civic Association, Greater Pine Island Water Association general manager Mikes (Mike) Maillakakis gave a presentation on the conceivable causes and possible outcome of the city of Cape Coral’s recent annexation of properties located just east of Veterans Memorial Parkway and Pine Island Road.
The city of Cape Coral is pursuing annexation in two ways, he said — voluntary, and involuntary annexation by special act. Focusing on involuntary annexation by special act, he said, would be a “deep dive,” involving some island history.
“Our franchise (GPIWA) comes through Lee County. We service the areas of unincorporated Lee County. That would be Pine Island, Matlacha and a little bit into Cape Coral. When the city annexes, we lose that franchise,” Maillakakis said.
The current franchise agreement to service these areas will be in effect for 28 more years (until 2050). Islanders should be as concerned as the water association board about any annexation of unincorporated Lee County by Cape Coral, he said.
“When a city annexes, you guys come out of unincorporated Lee County and you go into the city,” Maillakakis said.
Although Pine Island and Matlacha are currently unincorporated, they are protected, by way of previously outlined development codes in the Land Development Code, he said. Within the Lee County LDC are sections dedicated to the Pine Island Plan, which protects the island from over-development.
“Chapter 33, planning communities, article 3, talks about Greater Pine Island, article 6 talks about Matlacha. These are the sections that the developers don’t want to have to deal with,” Maillakakis said, explaining that these articles protect the island from the widely disputed development plans deemed acceptable in other cities.
Maillakakis urged GPICA members not to think about this annexation from their perspective, but rather to think about this from the prospective of the developers, who may desire to have their properties no longer be considered unincorporated Lee County by annexing anything they can into the city of Cape Coral. Many of the problems developers face via Pine Island Plan restrictions are easily solved by annexing the island properties, at which point, any successfully annexed land ceases to be unincorporated Lee County, becoming instead, part of the city of Cape Coral. The state provides 3 ways to annex land, in addition to the earlier mentioned involuntary special annexation, he said.
“What they’re doing right now, is they’re going to create a new law. It’s called Enclave Annexation by special act,” Maillakakis said.
According to Maillakakis, on March 9, the Cape Coral Committee of the Whole (COW) presented an enclave annexation strategy to the City Council, void of any Pine Island stakeholders, such as, representatives from Pine Island civic associations, the Matlacha/Pine Island Fire Department or the Greater Pine Island Water Association to weigh in. Maillakakis then shared myriad possible future enclaves, including off-island properties, to which annexation by the city of Cape Coral is either underway or has been requested.
“Very strategic — that city boundary keeps moving westward. It keeps moving westward gobbling up properties, turning them into enclaves so that after the fact, those enclaves can then be annexed,” Maillakakis said.
Using the Matlacha Civic Association’s legal battle to keep D & D property in Matlacha as an example, Maillakakis said it’s easier for a developer to deal with the city of Cape Coral than Lee County, because of the LDC, under which Pine Island is protected under the Pine Island Plan.
“It took them three years to overturn that annexation…first they had to find a judge that was going to listen to them, so they appealed it two times, but they ended up finding a judge that was going to listen to them and that judge read the Florida Statutes and then realized…these properties are not contiguous to the city and overturned the annexation. I don’t think the city was happy with that,” Maillakakis said.
In light of that case, he said, the city of Cape Coral may have learned a valuable lesson in annexing one property at a time in order to force enclaves and further annexation. The first step in putting this law into place that would allow annexation by special act is Cape Coral reaching out to local representatives and senators in search of congressional sponsorship at the Lee County Legislative Delegation meeting on Aug. 18, 2022, at Florida SouthWestern College. In order to be included on the agenda, the Cape Coral must submit this special act to the delegation by Aug. 6. Influence in the form of attendance at the meeting, emails, letters or phone calls from those opposed to this special act proposal is vital to counter the sponsorship and creation of the Bill, he said.
“In 2003, the city had an annexation of enclaves by special act and they got a sponsor and House Bill 421 was created and their sponsor was Rep. (Jeff) Kottkamp. That bill passed the House. That bill passed the Senate…but in time enough people found out about it and enough people let their legislators know that they opposed it and due to public outcry, the sponsor of the bill — Rep. Kottkamp — told the governor to veto it. That’s the first time I’ve ever seen that…you have power. Democracy works,” Maillakakis said.
Maillakakis said the GPIWA has requested a price proposal in order to present at the delegation meeting on Aug. 18. Fire Chair Board Commissioner Tonya Player reported that the Fire Board has unanimously approved $100,000 be moved from emergency reserves to the legal fund in order to protect citizens on both sides of the bridge.
To reach PAULETTE LeBLANC, please email pleblanc@breezenewspapers.com