Commissioner Frank Mann stands before map of Lehigh Acres during meeting last Saturday set to ask for volunteers to help provide land use codes for the Lehigh Community Plan. Photo by Mel Toadvine

Lee County Commissioner Frank Mann and county planners were surprised at a turnout of around 150 people on Saturday, July 24 at the East County Regional Library in Lehigh where plans were to form a board of five to seven people to help planners come up with land codes to start the implementation of the Lehigh Plan.

But the plan to form some type of local board went awry because the large crowd spent most of the two hours complaining about conditions in Lehigh, from the way it was platted to the absence of code enforcement officers to complaints that there is is not enough commercial properties in Lehigh for such developments as a large mall.

Seats had been set up for about 40 people, but more had to be set up as throngs of Lehigh residents came to the library conference room, making the meeting late in starting by about 10 minutes.

Kathie Ebaugh and Matt Noble, principal planners for Lee County first presented a slide presentation explaining much of what the Lehigh Acres Plan was and said land development codes needed to be implemented in Lehigh, which may be different than those in other parts of the county.

“We would like to have you volunteer to work with us,” Ebaugh said at the beginning of the meeting, indicating the county favored a small board of five to seven people who would meet with county planners while codes are written. During the course of the meeting, Ebaugh said it would be good to have representatives from the service organizations, the churches and other groups volunteer to work with county staff.

But when the slide show ended and the audience was asked if they had questions about coming up with land codes for the community, dozens of people shouted out criticisms about present day conditions in Lehigh. Some complained about the lack of commercial space and others complained about lots overgrown with grass and abandoned or foreclosed homes not being attended to.

Several times, Commissioner Mann went before the audience and tried to explain that the purpose of the meeting was to seek volunteers to aid planners for the establishment of land codes for a future Lehigh Acres, taking the Lehigh Plan into consideration. Copies of an ordinance No. 10-16 regarding the Lehigh Acres Community Plan were available at the meeting.

Still folks continued to blast conditions of the community. Frank Lohlein complained about taxes threatening “6,000 votes,” to defeat any type of tax raise. Lohlein claims to have 6,000 members of an organization called CAIT (Citizens Against Increased Taxes.)

Mann reminded him that the meeting Saturday was not about raising taxes.

Others such as Frank LaRosa complained that he had not been introduced because he was a public servant serving as a member of the board of Lee County Health Systems. He is also a candidate for reelection to that board and is being challenged by two others.

Those who came represented a good sampling of Lehigh residents, including young and old and several minorities. Several in the crowd tried to get people to stop complaining and offer information about how a board could be formed.

Finally, unable to turn the crowd around to the subject at hand, Ebaugh said anyone there who wanted to offer suggestions could email her at: kebaugh@leegov.com.

She said future forums will be announced through the media and could be held within a few months or whenever the planners have come up with certain codes and needed the community’s input. In the end, the County Commission will adopt the codes and the plan into the overall Lee County Plan.

Such codes will affect zoning and other areas for a future Lehigh to follow.

The LACPC, (Lehigh Acres Community Planning Corp.) formed five years ago, came about to launch a Lehigh land use study plan which has been accomplished. Such a plan was presented to the county at a cost of $500,000 several months ago by a firm on the east coast of the state, Wallace, Roberts and Todd Inc.. It was also presented to the Legislature which tweaked it and sent it back to the county.

In a recent unscientific poll in The Citizen, 100 percent of respondents said they did not know anything about the Lehigh Plan, despite extensive media coverage for the past four years.

During that period and even to the present, few people have attended meetings of the LACPC. There was a period two years ago when a large crowd turned out at the Veterans Park Center to suggest plans for a future Lehigh, but even then, most of the comments were objections against present conditions, including the fact that there is little commercial land in Lehigh, and that model homes had been allowed to be built along Lee Blvd. before the financial bust in the area and there was a lack of code enforcement officers. The latter complaint was remedied but when financial conditions worsened in the county, the number of code officers was cut.

An FGCU college professor who volunteered to help form the LACPC five years ago suggested a board of between five and seven people. But local residents who attended that first meetings opted for a much larger board of up to 15 members. Few of the original members of the LACPC still serve on the original board, which has met monthly since its beginning.

Now the LACPC listens to developers and planners who present their plans before they go to county examiners and finally the County Commission. Edd Weiner is the current president of the board which meets on the third Wednesday of each month at 6:30 p.m. at Veterans Park Community Center.