Proposed border shift would give San Carlos land, but not a plan

A boundary change the Lee County Local Planning Agency will consider Monday would remove 176 acres from the Estero planning area, making it instead part of the San Carlos Park planning area.

If there ever is one.

The change affects neighborhoods south of Pine Road, on Adams and Bristol roads, Beaulieu Court and Allaire Lane. The communities of Breckenridge and Riverwoods Plantation would remain in the Estero planning area.

The border issue popped up in 2005 when county commissioners rezoned 60 acres at the west end of Pine Road. Some Pine Road residents opposed the rezoning and wondered why the developer had his proposal reviewed by the Estero Community Planning Panel even though the property is in the San Carlos Park fire district.

The Estero Community Planning Panel was created by county growth management plan amendments pushed by Estero residents. The community now has its own level of planning standards, and developers must appear at public meetings in Estero as part of the county’s development review process.

Some Pine Road residents, who pay taxes to and are part of the San Carlos Park fire district, wondered why their neighbors to the south were reviewing the project and how their neighborhood came to be considered part of Estero.

“They were all upset about there being no review in San Carlos,” said Jim Mudd, the county planner who hosted a series of meetings in the area.

Mudd said he spoke to members of the San Carlos Park Civic Association, who expressed interest in creating their own planning community and planning panel.

“They never followed through,” he said.

Civic association President Mark Fedigan said that’s right. So far, he said, there hasn’t been enough interest.

“Our voice in San Carlos is basically the civic association,” he said. “That’s the political voice that we have. We’ve dwindled down to a small core of people, and we’re trying to build back up.”

That could highlight the difference between the two communities. Political nobodies not that long ago, Estero’s influence has grown as development, money and people have poured in.

San Carlos Park remains a working-class community.

“We’re a little different,” Fedigan said. “We don’t have the retirees. We don’t have a lot of people with a lot of time to spend at meetings and lobbying elected officials.”

The Local Planning Agency will review the boundary change at its meeting on Monday at 8:30 a.m. at the Old Lee County Courthouse in downtown Fort Myers.

Fedigan said there is still hope for a local planning panel in San Carlos Park.

“I think we’re headed in the right direction,” he said. “But it’s a slow process.”