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Forum Notes

April 20, 2010

Riverdale Branch Library

Fort Myers Shores

 

 
Future
Community Vision		 Land Use/
Development		 Parks/
Conservation		 Transportation Public
Services		 Pictures

 

Future Community Vision:

  • Quality of Life
    • Lee County needs to become something other than a retirement  community
    • Promote a rural quality of life
  • Community Character
    • Preserve environmental character through stronger environmental practices
    • Upgrade the character of the Palm Beach Corridor
    • Improve distinction between urban and rural areas
  • Community Features
    • Economic Development
      • Improve the economy’s balance and diversity
    • Environmental
      • Provide river access to the public
    • Land/Community Development
      • Focus on the Palm Beach Corridor
      • Allow for stronger local community control
      • Keep what is rural while planning for growth
      • Establish commercial nodes on 80
  • Lifestyles

 

Land Use/Development:

  • Development Pattern/Style
    • How do you determine how many people should be here? Why build more?
    • Build in core and areas that are already platted
    • Eliminate sprawl
    • Focus development in urban areas – TDR
  • Prominent features
    • Don’t have everything look like Lee Blvd
    • Range of housing opportunities for everyone
    • River is a prominent feature
  • Design characteristics
    • Need community design controls
  • Development Practices
    • Need greater enforcement of the Lee Plan
    • Use or lose development rights – land use designations, zoning designations, development orders, etc….
    • Utilize transfer of development rights to protect rural areas
    • Boundaries of community plans need to be reviewed and or adjusted
    • There needs to be a need for increased density
    • Freeze allocation tables
    • Create a TDR program
    • Retire unused density units when a project is constructed
    • Allow businesses to share parking units
  • Urban form / Rural Character
    • Need better coordination between agriculture department and rural area tax payers

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Parks/Conservation:

  • Parks and public spaces
    • Park Resources
      • Create more parks
      • More 2020 lands
      • Focus on “Old Florida” parks
      • Offer guided trips into preserved conservation areas and parks
      • More funding for existing parks
      • Maintain areas that will attract tourists
      • Number of parks have fallen behind and are not keeping up with development
      • Improve linkages between parks
    • Neighborhood Parks
      • Support community gardens
      • Increase number of local gardens in urban areas
    • Shared Resources/Partnerships
  • Conservation areas
    • Beef up enforcement of environmental laws and make violators fix their mistakes
    • Natural Spaces
      • Strengthen tree ordinance to save heritage trees
        • On paper tree ordinance looks good, but there are not any teeth to enforce.
      • Don’t allow land to be cleared until the development order is in place
      • Better control of water quality
      • Rehydrate Spanish Creek
    • Natural Species
      • Protect the panthers
      • Emphasize native vegetation
    • Energy Practices
      • Utilize green energy
  • Open space areas
    • Emphasize greenways
    • Support the preservation of natural blueways
    • More horse riding trails
  • Access and location

 Transportation:

  • Roadways
    • No new major highways through rural lands
    • Use better drainage other than swales 
    • All rural roads should be 2 lanes or less
    • Ensure roads consider needs of pedestrians and cyclists
    • Keep State Road 31 two lane and rural – let Babcock Ranch find another access route
    • Allow 31 to be expanded to accommodate Babcock Ranch
    • No urban upgrades on rural roads
  • Multimodal / General transportation
    • Clean transportation
    • Utilize transportation resources to connect communities
      • Like rail
      • Light rail
  • Sidewalks/trails
    • Promote sidewalks
    • Create bike/hike/pedestrian walkways
  • Bikeways
    • Promote the construction of bike paths
    • Create more biking trails
  • Transit
    • More mass transit
    • Create a light rail line
    • Use rail for passengers
    • Have local tram/trolley service
    • Mass transit between urban nodes

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Public Services:

  • Utilities
    • Use utilities to control growth
    • Use safer septic systems
    • Foster the use of solar power
      • Street lights
      • Utilize private-public funding
    • Prefer underground utilities
    • Plan for what’s going to come in the future
    • Plan to limit growth to the current comprehensive plan allocation
    • Don’t extend sewer/water lines into rural areas
  • Schools
    • Allow parents of homeschool kids to transfer their school tax money to a department of their choice
    • More technology education
    • Establish realistic goals
  • Government services
    • More community involvement in government decisions
  • Land development services
    • More community involvement in community planning
    • More community workshops
    • Greater observation of community plans
    • Better representation of the small land owners
    • Create alternative funding sources for community planning projects – MSTU, TIF, etc…
  • Emergency services

 

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Pictures: