FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:    Paul O’Connor, Lee County Division of Planning
                (941) 479-8309

FORT MYERS, Fla. (April 24, 2001) – Lee County is hiring a planner to assist residents with their Community Planning efforts and is developing a more flexible way to distribute "seed money" and grant funds for the efforts.

The Board of Lee County Commissioners today unanimously approved the addition of a new Principal Planner position in the Division of Planning that would work primarily in assisting communities in the development and implementation of Community Plans. The Board also authorized future changes to county administrative codes that would allow greater flexibility in distributing funds to the Community Planning efforts.

Community Plans are grass-roots efforts that enable residents of an area to determine what they'd like their neighborhoods to look like, and then add that vision to the county's overall comprehensive plan. The county’s comprehensive plan is its blueprint for accommodating future growth and development. The Board’s actions are intended to facilitate the process and make it easier for residents, but still keep it at the community level.

In this year’s budget, the county set aside $200,000 of matching funds (up to $25,000 per community) to help areas with their plans. The Board’s action today will eliminate the requirement for matching funds from the communities. Each request instead will be evaluated on a case by case basis and a contract specifying the terms and conditions of the grant funding will be approved by the Board. Grant funding from the county also will require that groups undertaking community planning efforts abide by Florida’s public records and open meetings laws. Communities that have expressed interest in – or are doing – community plans include Pine Island, Captiva, Estero, East Lee County and North Fort Myers.

Community groups that do not seek county funding, however, may not be subject to the public records and open meetings laws depending on the level of involvement sought from the county and its planner.

The Principal Planner will serve as a point of contact for groups during the community planning process and will have the following basic duties:

• Educate the communities on planning principles and practices.
• Educate the communities on the Lee Comprehensive Plan, Land Development Code and other relevant regulations.
• Gather and organize data to act as the base data for a planning study.
• Generate maps of existing land use, current zoning, ownership, etc.
• Assist in the formation of work programs for planning studies.
• Attend all of the community planning meetings.
• Provide input and comment on the proposed plans’ policies.
• Review drafts of proposed plan amendments.
• Formulate amendments to the Land Development Code to implement community plan policies.