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Caloosahatchee Shores Community Planning

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FORT MYERS – A revitalized commercial corridor along Palm Beach Boulevard anchors a community-driven plan to encourage updated uses for living, shopping and socializing in the 1960s- and ’70s-era Caloosahatchee Shores neighborhood.

The proposed Lee County codes and comprehensive plan amendments needed to implement this vision will be presented at a public meeting Tuesday, March 15, at 5 p.m., in the Olga Community Center, 2325 S. Olga Drive, in east Lee County.

These amendments to Lee County’s Land Development Code and the Lee Plan result from a collaboration of the Caloosahatchee Shores Community Plan Committee and Lee County staff with input from residents. The community planning effort itself was spearheaded by neighborhood volunteers with roots in the Caloosahatchee Shores and Olga communities. Lee County provided two grants totaling more than $60,000 for the effort since 2001.

“We’ve been working on the implementation of this plan for about two years, and we hope our neighbors will come out to see what we’ve accomplished,” said Janet Tripp, president of East Lee County Council. “We think there is a lot of potential for business here, especially with the new homes in The Verandah and River Hall.”

A commercial corridor along Palm Beach Boulevard from SR 31 east to Old Olga Road would become the center of the neighborhood, although there are several other nodes for combined commercial, residential and recreational uses. Standards for architecture, signs and landscaping and new forms for mixing residential, business and public space will guide the emerging character of the community.

“This is the blue print that will both preserve and – we hope – invigorate this community that has its roots in ’60s-style neighborhoods but also saw gated community development in this millennium,” said Mikki Rozdolski, senior planner for Lee County’s Zoning Division.

Caloosahatchee Shores will begin to implement a new vision for growth and development in unincorporated Lee as presented in the New Horizon 2035: Evaluation and Appraisal Report, which Commissioners approved March 1.

“Getting the public’s say is essential at this point. This is the time when the specifics – in the zoning code and elsewhere – are going to be discussed and debated,” said Ed Kimball, chairman of the Caloosahatchee Planning Committee.