Environmentalists fail in last bid to halt development near Sanibel Causeway

Lee County commissioners cleared the way for construction of a 50-unit development off McGregor Boulevard a short distance from the Sanibel Causeway.

The latest decision came Wednesday by allowing the developer to use one driveway instead of two to access the 207-acre site, located in an area just beyond Port Comfort Road in south Fort Myers.

The project, called Sanibel Passage, was first approved in 2005. The 16-story condominium-owned apartment building will include 150 parking spots on-site, including 143 spots in a two-deck parking facility and seven at an amenities building. 

Under rules in effect then, it was left to the discretion of a county zoning official whether one of the driveways could be eliminated. Work stopped in 2006 and restarting the project required a new hearing to be held on deleting a driveway. 

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In a last-ditch effort to stop the project, environmentalists had seized on the opportunity to remind commissioners of changes over the past decade about environmental impacts of construction near the shoreline.

But deputy county attorney Michael Jacob told county commissioners the original approval must stand. 

"Approval of the case back in 2004, 2005 is not before you," Jacob said. 

Six people spoke at an earlier hearing examiner's proceedings and three of them returned to take up the issue again at Wednesday's zoning meeting before commissioners. 

James Evans, environmental policy director for the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation, told commissioners that the foundation has acquired mangrove-laden parcels near the site to protect the wetlands.

"This project should be scaled back to better fit with the ecological conditions in the area or should be eliminated altogether," Evans said. 

One of those parcels is a small strip of nearly two acres along McGregor Boulevard in front of the planned development parcel. 

"We acquired these lands to protect the many benefits of coastal wetlands that they provide in protecting and improveing water quality, habitat and wildlife," Evans said. "They're the first line of defense against sea level rise and storm surge."

Holly Milbrandt, natural resources director for the city of Sanibel, said the city has asked the Army Corps of Engineers for a hearing.

"We urge the county to consider the density and impact of the entire project," Milbrandt said. "The proposed development will have direct impacts on the wetlands that were not reviewed when the local government approvals were issued in 2005. "

A neighbor, Mary Tracy Sigman, told the commission she wished that somehow the development would not happen. 

"I live very close to where this development will possibly go, I feel in my heart this never should have been permitted in the first place," Sigman said. "I would think that allowing this variance would give a signal to developers that this kind of devleopment is OK and possibly more developers would see to do more."

The developer's attorney, Neale Montgomery, asked that commissioners consider only the driveway, and not  approval of the planned development given 16 years ago.

"The only reason we're here is because the rules changed between 2005 and now, but the traffic impacts haven't changed," she said. "Traffic impacts were evaluated in 2005 —  there was a different criteria at the time relative to the two means of ingress and egress."

I-75 drives more development

Commissioners also approved rezoning a 78-acre property for commercial, retail and industrial development near Alico and Oriole roads, adjacent to Three Oaks Parkway.

There are two parcels, one 550,000 square feet to the east of Oriole Road and another, 500,000 square feet, to the west.  

The property, called the Three Oaks Logistics Center, is located with the kind of convenient access to the interstate that is important to logistics firms, developers said. 

It is also in an area ripe for additional development since the county plans to build an extension to Three Oaks Parkway that will be extended from its current ending at Fiddlesticks Canal to Daniels Parkway in south Fort Myers.