Presentation given by 7-11: Matt Fredrickson, center, an associate retail specialist with CBRE in Fort Myers, talks about converting the AutoWeb store on Sunshine Blvd. and Lee Blvd. into a 7-11 convenience store with gasoline pumps. Photo by Mel Toadvine

The Lehigh Acres Community Planning Corp. (LACPC) has been told to “slow down a little bit” by Lee County Planner Kathy Ebaugh. And Frank LaRosa, a member of the LACPC has asked for Edd Weiner’s resignation saying the way Weiner runs the 13-member board doesn’t represent him.

In fact earlier in the evening when the LACPC met on June 9, LaRosa made a point to tell those who had come before the board with preliminary site plans for future development in Lehigh, that the LACPC doesn’t represent the people.

“We don’t have the authority. You don’t represent the people of Lehigh. I want that made that clear. I have to speak out,” aiming his comments at Weiner, the LACPC chairman.

The LACPC has been in existence for maybe eight or nine years and its sole purpose was to work with professional planners to get a land use study completed for Lehigh after at attempt to incorporate was rejected. That plan was concluded last year and was presented to the state and it has been approved and sent back to the County Commission for implementation into the county’s long range plans.

County Planner Ebaugh was taking notes during the meeting when representatives of two groups came before the board and offered preliminary plans for development.

Proposed development: Tim Hancock, director of planning with Davidson Engineering in Naples shows a rendering of a proposed shopping complex that owners may build if the land can be removed from another plot of commercially zoned land on Milwaukee Blvd. Photo by Mel Toadvine

Weiner said a couple of time during the meeting that the County Commission “wants you guys to come out here and show up your plans before they will go along with them.”

Both plans presented to the LACPC were for zoning purposes and both took considerable time as board members took aim at lots of specific things it would like to see in both projects.

In the past several months, the LACPC has come close to becoming an architectural board, similar to the one in Estero, but not with official recognition by the county.

And LaRosa is still upset that the land use plan was never put before the people of Lehigh for a vote. And the people who serve on the LACPC are not elected by the people, but rather, by each other when a vacancy occurs.

Representatives of property at Sunshine Blvd. and Lee Blvd. returned for a second time, as required by the LACPC if a letter of approval with issues is going to be sent to the commissioners.

Weiner and the group offered several suggestions for changes and the representatives said they would do what they could to please the people in Lehigh.

What’s planned at that busy intersection on the northwest side is a new Seven-Eleven convenient store with gas pumps. The present building, owned owned by an auto sales business, will be revamped as anew 7/11. The discussion regarding the plan took almost an hour before a second group presented plans for a proposed shopping complex on Milwaukee Blvd and Homestead Rd.

While the representatives brought a rendering, all they wanted was permission to remove 18 acres from another plot for zoning purposes.

When the economy improves, they plan to build a small shopping complex, not a strip center, that has almost become a bad word with Weiner and some members of the board members.

But rather than take a few minutes and discuss whether the LACPC would puts its stamp of approval on zoning, members went back and forth about what they wanted to see at the shopping center and what they didn’t want to see.

Richard Georgian, of instance, suggested a movie theatre and/or amusement center with “some nice restaurants” to bring people in Lehigh to the shopping center instead of having to drive to Fort Myers.

Others had suggestions, too, even though the project may be years off. If all goes as planned, it is to be known as the Heavy Tree Center, and it is in the neighborhood close to Mirror Lakes Elementary School.

The new county planner, Kathy Ebaugh near the end of the meeting said she would be at all meetings of the LACPC and warned them “to slow down” until the land use plan is implemented. She said she wanted to hold a slide show before the July 14 meeting and bring everyone up to date about the land use plan.

She said she would like to see community support. That was when LaRosa slammed Kathy Ebaugh because she said that she was interested in “community input.” He said that unless the Lehigh plan is put on a referendum, that she had “no right to be saying such a thing, as no one comes to the LACPC meeting and the 13 members do not represent the public nor his view on Lehigh.

LaRosa continued for about 15 minutes. Ebaugh held her composure and listened to him.

Without supervision from the county, the LACPC has charged ahead in the last few months making suggestions to developers or those representing future development or business.

LACPC Chairman Weiner doesn’t like palm trees and brings it up each time a new business comes before the group for input. He always suggests shade trees and often makes fun of downtown Fort Myers because of the palm trees.

Few people attend the meetings even they are promoted in The Citizen each week on Page 2 and on Lehighacrescitizen.com.

LaRosa said later he can’t change his mind about the way he feels.

“We just do not represent the people of Lehigh. They didn’t send us us to make decisions on architectural design and other things. I just want to make it clear that this is wrong and I am going to keep saying it,” he told The Citizen.

During the meeting the county planner said she wanted to have plenty of time to discuss what “we should be working on” and reviewing the plan prepared by Wallace Roberts and Todd.

That study cost the county $500,000.