Golf course redevelopment: Owner brings drainage issue to forefront

Barbara Ogle and Jim Stoke enjoy the peaceful view of a lake and former golf course behind their Bonita Springs home. They paid a premium for the land 23 years ago to have that natural look just beyond their lanai, and they believed they would always live that way. But plans are underway for the lake to be filled in and homes to be built just beyond their property.

When they bought the land, they didn’t know the golf course could be turned into single family and multi-family dwellings. They have more concerns beyond losing their view. The lake provides the water for their irrigation, and they worry about years of dirt and dust coating their lanai and pool during construction. They say it is devastating. But the couple and their neighbors can’t legally fight a blocked view, or loss of lake water or dust. So, they are using the only weapon they believe might work: drainage.

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Dwight Esmon doesn’t even live on the closed golf course, his view won’t change, but he is leading the fight against development plans based solely on drainage issues.

“Do they want a backyard that has always been open, to have houses? No,” Esmon began. “But they understand that they (Barron Collier) have the right to build, but they are concerned about drainage.”

Esmon continuously praised Barron Collier for their quality building and willingness to work with the community, but that doesn’t stop his concerns.

“Barron Collier is a reputable company,” Esmon said. “I believe they want to help the people.”

Help comes in the form of plans to reroute the water, build new lakes and put in drainage piping. But Esmon and his neighbors are afraid it might not be enough.

“Stormwater forecasting is like weather forecasting. It is not always accurate,” Esmon said. “The problem I have with pumps is they can fail. They can get clogged up. Pumps can break.”

Nick Casalanguida, senior vice president of development for Barron Collier, says they are doing all they can to help with drainage and preserve the environment. They reduced development from 500 units to 350 front doors and are saving 30-35 percent of the property for lakes. Casalanguida said the lakes and drainage plans were designed by the City of Bonita Springs, not the developer.

“It is a capital project blended in with the development,” he explained. “We are working with the city council to come up with a joint project. I think the one good thing that comes out it is that the citizens can feel comfortable that the drainage system is not from us, it is the city engineer that is saying this drainage system will do a really good job. Conservation and drainage are pretty significant with that property. We came up with a point where it can work.”

A lengthy history

Bonita Springs Golf and Country Club, a semi-private, 18-hole golf course, first opened in 1977. It closed in 2006. When it closed, the owner decided it would make a better housing development than a golf course.  Permitting and engineering for this plan were mostly completed when the real estate market took a downward turn. That left the property in limbo, until the recent Barron Collier purchase. Barron Collier bought the south part of the golf course in Oct 2020 and the north part in December 2021. They paid about $6.1 million for the two parcels.  

Since the time the golf course closed, there has been a struggle between those that want it to remain open space and those that find the land lucrative for development.

Development opponents are now hoping the property will be bought by Conservation 20/20 or by the City of Bonita Springs. And that can happen.

“We filled out the application for 20/20 and it has been submitted to Lee County,” Casalanguida said. “We said we would work with them.”

A trio of tracks

Bonita Springs city councilman, Chris Corrie, says there are three possible futures for that land.

“One is that the city would just buy enough of the property to put a stormwater management system that would drain approximately all the property north of Shangri-la Road. That is one scenario,” he began.

If that is the plan, Corrie believes the city would contract with Barron Collier to build that stormwater system since the developer would already have the equipment on site.

“The second scenario is that the city would buy it all,” Corrie continued. “That would be dependent upon whether we can still use the FEMA money to buy it. If we only need half of it for water management, would FEMA put up the rest of the money to buy the rest of the property?”

Corrie says Barron Collier has indicated that the purchase price is $19 million.

The third path is for Lee County to buy the property with its Conservation 20/20 program.

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“I think that is probably the best alternative because the city could work with the county,” Corrie said. “FEMA would have the money for the water system.  We could put in passive parks, walking trails, bike trails and playgrounds for kids and create a number of lakes to hold water. It could create a number of ways that people can be active.”

Corrie believes that a 123-acre piece of property would benefit the county’s conservation program because it is a large contiguous piece of land.

Lee County Commissioner, Ray Sandelli, says the county looks for a number of things when selecting what to buy for Conservation 20/20. A committee reviews and ranks projects based on how costly it will be to maintain the land, whether the property is contiguous with other 20/20 purchases and how it fits into future flow-ways. They also look at how it might be used for the public in the future and how it will help the environment.

“Once we know it is something viable, we get an appraisal for it,” Sandelli said. “We have to pay a fair price. I think the challenge for all of us is to choose it wisely.”

The process of the county or city buying the land takes time and that is why Esmon is trying to slow down Barron Collier’s plans for development.  On Tuesday, the Bonita Springs zoning board conditionally passed Barron Collier’s zoning requests with the condition that they answer a series of additional questions.

“The thing still has a lot of moving parts to it,” Corrie said.

The quest goes on

Esmon continues his quest to slow development plans until all other avenues are exhausted. He has researched the drainage issues for years. He put together a PowerPoint showing the flooded streets around his home after a large storm in 2017 and after Hurricane Irma later that same year. The photos also show water almost up to Ogle and Stoke’s pool.

Bill Clark adds to this, telling the story of how his father in-law’s home had water up to the garage and covering the streets after the hurricane,

“It was an island,” Clark said. “He couldn’t get out for 10 days.”

Clark lives a few houses down from his father-in-law and has his own concerns about the developer’s plans to fill in the drainage ditch behind his home.

“There are fish in here and snakes, turtles and frogs,” Clark said.

Right now, the water flows across the golf course and into the lakes and ditches. It eventually makes its way to Spring Creek. Development plans call for new lakes and drainage that meet county and state regulations. But that doesn’t ease concerns.

“One of our main concerns is when they drain this lake our pool will pop,” Ogle relayed. “We bought knowing it would be a lake and a golf course. We did not find out until after the golf course closed that it was zoned single family and multifamily.”

Clark didn’t purchase his house until 2009 three years after the golf course closed, but he never knew it could be developed with houses. His father-in-law bought his home 28 years ago when it was a golf course.

“People bought with the thought that it would always be a golf course,” Esmon explained. “Our argument is, don’t make any decisions to move forward with deviations until we have more information.”