Board OKs DR/GR development proposals

Bonita Springs held true to its one-step-at-a-time plan for building on environmentally sensitive land on the city’s east side as the Local Planning Agency weighed two development proposals Thursday.

The LPA approved both proposals to build housing on the Density Reduction/Groundwater Resource land, although one was modified to fit the advisory board’s concerns. The DR/GR land is zoned to allow only one home per 10 acres.

“We are on a really slippery slope here,” LPA member Cullum Hasty said. “I’m afraid this action will become precedent.”

Both development plans called for high-density residential classification with 200 multi-family homes on 20 acres of property. One is at the existing Glade Haven mobile home park site. The other is on property from New Cingular Wireless on Tower Road, just west of Glade Haven.

The board approved the 200 homes on the 20-acre Glade Haven site in a 4-2 decision, with Hasty and member Don Colapietro dissenting over concerns to the DR/GR and the nearby Imperial River. Chairman Larry Warner abstained on both proposals because he has a working relationship with the developers.

The initial request for the Tower Road property was denied 2-4 because the majority of the board has concerns over its effect on the environmentally sensitive area. Board members recommended a moderate density for the 20-acre property, which would be around six homes per acre.

“We were looking for the high density,” said Larry Lotterman, the consultant for New Cingular Wireless. “We saw this as something positive for the area.”

The development might not be able to proceed with the lower density, Lotterman said.

The LPA’s votes will go as recommendations to the Bonita Springs City Council, which has the final say. The proposals still have to go through the zoning process.

When the advisory board members were making their decisions Thursday, they stressed repeatedly the developments would not set a precedent for development in the DR/GR. Instead, they wanted to take the development of the land one step at a time.

“The city is doing right; it is going through the process correctly,” said Robert Pritt, attorney for the Glade Haven property owners. “This land is crying out to be upgraded; it is crying out to be a renovated property.”

Pritt said when Lee County drew the boundaries for the DR/GR, it wrongly included land that was not environmentally sensitive. By going through the DR/GR parcel-by-parcel, the city can correct that error, he said.

LPA member Rex Sims said the high-density classification the property owners asked for allowed up to 300 homes, which would be way too much for the site. Pritt and the property owners said they didn’t want any more than 200.

LPA member Jose Lopez voted in favor of the plan but said he was concerned about the residents of the 70-unit Glade Haven mobile home park. Affordable housing is an issue in the city, and the development would eliminate homes for lower-income people.

“I recognize what is being done is an improvement, but here are low-income people — the people we are talking about providing homes for,” Lopez said.

Pritt said the landowners would pay at least the state-required amount of $5,000 per single unit to relocate the trailers.

In denying the initial request for the Tower Road development, LPA members acknowledged the two proposals were similar but said the New Cingular Wireless proposal wasn’t enough of an improvement to justify 200 homes.

The redevelopment of Glade Haven is going to improve a bad area, Warner said, but the land on Tower Road doesn’t need that upgrade.

“We are not doing away with anything substandard,” Simms said. “There’s no benefit to the city to rezone this.”

Before the board made its decision, Tower Road resident Deb Price pleaded to agency members to allow the development. The land now is full of garbage like discarded gas cans, and the housing development would be an improvement, she said.

“You guys study yourselves to death. There are no wetlands out there,” Price said. “These people are going to be great neighbors.”

John Murray, executive director of the Corkscrew Regional Ecosystem Watershed, said both proposals should have been denied.

“At this point, there is not enough scientific evidence to justify moving ahead with any development plans,” Murray said.