County holds off on Plan, LDC changes
The Lee County Board of County Commissioners voted Tuesday to pause on proposed amendments to the Lee Plan and related revisions to the Land Development Code that would have eliminated existing, community-specific planning throughout the county.
At their meeting, the commissioners canceled an Oct. 7 hearing where they would have considered the staff-proposed changes to the Lee County Comprehensive Plan and LDC — including removing plans for 17 communities created over decades — and discontinuing any action on them.
As part of the motion to cancel, the commission sent the amendments back to county staff with the direction to develop a revised timeline for it to review and consider the revisions, which will also include public outreach and communication to educate the impacted communities about the changes being proposed.
Commissioner Kevin Ruane made the motion and Commissioner David Mulicka seconded it.
Ruane reported that he has not had the time to review the hundreds of pages of amendments and his office has been inundated with emails and people. He added that he does not want a gun to his head and “I feel like there is a gun to my head.”
“I can tell you I will not be done (reviewing the documents) by Oct. 7,” Ruane said. “The community is as enraged as I have heard the community before. I don’t want anyone to feel we are rushing it.”
Mulicka reported that he has not received the information necessary to evaluate the revisions, that communities have invested a lot of time in developing their plans and they are part of their identity, and that staff should have outreach meetings to provide communities with the opportunity to be heard.
“I’m on record saying I was proud to second the motion on April 1 last year to get government out of the way — be easier to do business within Lee County and improve the processes,” he said, continuing that he never thought it would have meant deleting the names of the communities out of the Lee Plan.
The Lee Communities Coalition, a recently-formed alliance of civic and community organizations working together to preserve meaningful citizen participation and community-specific planning in unincorporated Lee, called the changes “a one-size-fits-all rules for development.”
It applauded the commission’s decision to hold off on the amendments.
“We want to commend Commissioners Ruane and Mulicka for their sensible approach to this issue that recognizes the community uproar over how the process has been handled and the need to slow things down,” TLCC Coordinator and Greater Pine Island Civic Association Board Member Nadine Slimak said in a statement. “Clearly, it’s not just a handful of folks who have concerns.”
Along with the Pine Island group, TLCC members include Alva Inc., the Buckingham Community Association Inc., Captiva Civic Association, Captiva Community Panel, Concerned Citizens of Bayshore Community Inc., Greater Pine Island Water Association and Matlacha Civic Association.
“Our communities are filled with reasonable people who can work together. After all, we spent years working together to develop growth and zoning rules that allow for development, while keeping the character of our individual communities intact,” she said. “Why would the county think we are suddenly unable to work with them again?”
The CCA noted that there are 17 community plan areas in Lee County.
“With many having their own chapters in the Lee Plan and their own articles in the Land Development Code to meet the needs and challenges of their special communities — whether rural, coastal or agricultural, or otherwise distinct,” it said in a statement. “Captiva is one of them.”
The CCA explained that Captiva’s chapter and article: limit density and building heights; prevent the subdivision of properties; limit outdoor lighting and sign pollution; protect the beaches, mangrove fringe and waterways; and guarantee that a public meeting take place on Captiva for Captiva-specific Plan and Code amendments and for rezonings and variances.
“The proposed amendments relax or eliminate these protections,” it said.
On behalf of TLCC, Slimak also thanked the commissioners for recognizing the need for staff to meet with affected communities and the need for a simple outline of changes written in layman’s terms.
“But we maintain that this whole process should be put on hold until the state-mandated review of the Lee Comprehensive Plan is due in 2028,” she added. “That’s the ideal time to sit down community-by-community and talk about what’s working and what’s not.”
At the meeting, the commission did direct staff to stay on track with nearly a dozen proposed amendments to the Plan for the southeast Lee area as part of their own separate process.
To reach TIFFANY REPECKI, please email trepecki@breezenewspapers.com