Conservancy gives 3 hours of expert testimony
Growth Management Specialist supports East Lee County Residents
By Julianne Thomas | Conservancy Senior Growth Management Specialist
At the local level, one of the most important tools to ensure future growth and development is planned appropriately is thorough the Comprehensive Plan (Comp Plan). In Lee County, their Comp Plan is not a one-size-fits-all approach, but instead creates various community planning areas, each addressing the characteristics and community vision unique to a specific part of the County.
While modification to these planning communities often occurs, such changes must be compatible with protection of environmental resources. If they are not, then natural resources could be negatively impacted. In addition, these amendments must be based on supportable data and analysis, along with being internally consistent with the intent of both their individual community plan and the overall Comp Plan. If changes are not based on supportable evidence, dangerous precedents could be set, which could result in a ripple-effect of detrimental impacts.
In 2012, Green Pointe LLC, a major landowner within the River Hall community, requested the ability to intensify use on 585.6 acres of land by removing it from River Hall’s existing rural lands category, a non-urban category, and designating it as sub-outlying suburban, an urban category. River Hall is part of the Caloosahatchee Shore Community Planning area, which contains very specific language stating that intensification can occur only if the Lee County Board of County Commissioners (BoCC) makes a finding of overriding public necessity.
The Conservancy opposed this amendment when it went before the BoCC, pointing out that the data and analysis to support this amendment was not sufficient, and that the applicant had not demonstrated their request constituted an overriding public necessity. Unfortunately, at their meeting on June 3, 2015, the BoCC proceeded to grant the applicant’s request despite the lack of appropriate determination of overriding public necessity.
Because other Lee County planning communities have similar language regarding overriding public necessity in their community plans, approval of the River Hall modification without substantiated identification of overriding public necessity could leave these other plans vulnerable to similar proposals for intensification in the future.
In July 2015, a group of citizens legally challenged this BoCC approval through the Division of Administrative Hearings. The Conservancy was able to support these property owners by providing expert witness testimony and research during this process.
Julianne Thomas, Senior Growth Management Specialist, was confirmed as an expert in Growth Management & Land Use planning and provided over three hours of testimony at the Administrative Hearing held on October 12, 2015, in Fort Myers.
A decision from the Administrative Law Judge is expected at the beginning of 2016.