Commissioners revise comprehensive plan

Lee County commissioners closed the door on freebies for developers last week.

Until Tuesday, developers could get additional density on their property by including county roads in their calculations.

The roads are public right of way so developers were adding acres to their property by including land they did not own.

Because of a misinterpretation of language in the county's comprehensive plan, planners were allowing the miscalculations, said Mary Gibbs, director of community development for the county.

"Developers were getting extra units because we were being generous with our interpretation," Gibbs said. "Over the years, we didn't catch it or didn't have a problem with it."

The situation did not occur very often, Gibbs said, because most of the time developers in Lee County want less density on their property rather than more.

Lee County typically allows six units per acre on property zoned residential.

Developers who want to increase their density have to apply to the county and pay $11,000 per unit.

In those cases, developers who included county roads in their total acreage could get up to a few dozen units for free.

The issue recently came to light when the developer of Buckingham Villages, a 60-acre piece of property in unincorporated Lee County east of Fort Myers, filed for a rezoning.

The developer wanted to add more units and included part of a county road in the calculations.

County staff recommended approval, which would have given the developer an extra 37 units.

The county's hearing examiner disagreed with the calculation. When the development came before county commissioners during a zoning hearing, the board also disagreed with the calculation. At Tuesday's board meeting, commissioners unanimously agreed to change the language in the comprehensive plan to seal the loophole.

"This has been anything but clear in how it was handled in the past," Commissioner John Albion said.

Though the decision could cost future developers thousands of dollars, it is not taking away anything they rightfully owned, Gibbs said.

"Future developers won't lose it because they never really had it," she said.

In the case of Buckingham Village, however, it could mean fewer lower-priced homes will be built.

The developer indicated the additional density would be used to build homes in the $240,000 range.

Lee County's Smart Growth department has been looking at increasing densities beyond the county's allowable amount in order to build more work-force housing.

In many cases, putting more units on a piece of property is the only way to make housing more affordable.

Smart Growth Director Wayne Daltry said he likely would have supported more density on the Buckingham property, but that doesn't mean commissioners were wrong to close the density loophole.

Their decision should not hurt his efforts to change the comprehensive plan to allow more density in developments that provide work force housing, he said.

"The issue on Tuesday was a basic one," he said. "You can't give a developer someone else's property for density.