Lee Loves Mixed-Use Idea

Commissioners support land-use plan to unclog roadways

By Ryan Hiraki
Ft. Myers News-Press
April 12, 2007

An idea to offer residents homes atop offices and businesses so they could walk to shop, to eat or to go out in the evening is expected to help keep them off Lee County's clogged roadways.

This idea, called mixed-use development, had scant discussion Wednesday when county commissioners unanimously voted to support the notion.

The vote was only tentative, however, because commissioners will wait until May 16 for a final vote so they can resolve conflicts with a local developer.

About two dozen locations in fast-growing areas such as Cape Coral, North Fort Myers, Lehigh Acres, and east and south Lee County have been identified as potential sites for the mixed-use component.

"It's a very positive change," Commissioner Bob Janes said. "Mixed use is an idea whose time has come."

It is actually an old idea in other parts of the country.

Look at New York, Boston, Philadelphia. Those cities have relied on mixed-use development throughout their histories.

Even downtown Fort Myers was built that way, and Coconut Point in Estero opened last year, offering similar amenities on a grander scale.

After automobiles became more popular in the early 1900s, people began to move from densely populated urban areas, preferring houses on bigger pieces of land.

Now that dream is harder to achieve, said Lee Smart Growth Director Wayne Daltry, as fuel and road construction costs rise.

Allowing people to work and shop and have fun close to home is becoming necessary, mixed-use advocates say.

That's what Cameratta, an Ohio developer, has realized with its First Street Village project under construction along McGregor Boulevard, near the Caloosahatchee River.

The project will feature 356 homes atop everything from banks, restaurants and offices with a Publix grocery store next door.

"One of the things that entices people is it's mixed-use," said Mark Jones, a real estate agent working • Email this article with Cameratta. "You can go to Starbucks, the dry cleaners, Publix, without having to get in your car.

"That's important, when more than 100,000 cars a day use Interstate 75 from January to April and more than 40,000 cars are on busy roads such as Colonial Boulevard, Daniels Parkway and U.S. 41.

"It's good to have neighbors not dependent on roads," said Pete Quasius, president of Audubon of Southwest Florida.

The pro-environment group aims to control sprawl, to prevent it from overrunning sensitive wetlands and wildlife habitat.

"This will be a prototype for others," Quasius said.