Edd Weiner, chairman of the LACPP

Edd Weiner, chairman of the Lehigh Acres Community Planning Council, says he plans to ask for the resignations of board members Frank LaRosa and Paul Lambertucci at the next meeting on October 12.

He made the announcement last week at the LACPP’s September meeting held in the Sheriff’s Annex on Homestead Rd.

The LACPP has for several years been the group that builders and planners for projects in Lehigh have come to and made their presentations before they go to the Hearing Examiner in Lee County. The group formed the Architectural Review Board (ARB) made up of about a half dozen members who listen to plans from proposed builders and developers, ask questions, and make recommendations and then ask the applicants to appear before the Lehigh Acres Community Planning Council for a final decision as to whether or not the group supports the project and if so with any suggested changes.

Two planning groups were unable last week to attend the LACPP meeting held Sept. 14. And only enough members to make a forum were able to show up at the meeting, too. Weiner said other members had called to say they had other obligations and/or were on vacation.

One of the projects to be reviewed was the Veterans Park Phase IV improvement, presented in July to the ARB under the leadership of Greg Diserio, chairman of the ARB.

The other group that was unable to attend was Jonathan Hagen, planner with Banks Engineering which plans the use of 30,000 square feet of commercial property at 4401-4409 Lee Blvd.

Before he told the group that he wanted to ask for LaRosa’s and Lambertucci’s resignation, Weiner said he had learned that they represented another group which had contacted the Lee County Sheriff’s Bravo Station to ask for a free meeting space in the Sheriff’s Annex.

Weiner said he was told they wanted the meeting room so proposed developers and planners could bring their plans before them.

Weiner and others on the board said they thought such action was a conflict of interest since the two men involved were also on the LACPP board.

Nino Pinder, a newer member of the LACPP, asked why Lee County government can’t recognize the group that has been listening to planners and developers come before them for years.

Weiner said the group could not be formally recognized, but acted as a group of leaders in Lehigh who previewed plans for future development in the community before the next step of going to the county examiner’s office with their proposals.

“They (the county) ask them first thing if they have been before this board,” Weiner said.

He noted that the LACPP-ARB was not unlike one in Estero where proposed builders and developers have gone to get approval and suggestions before heading to the county examiner’s office for approval. Often they include requests for zoning changes both in Estero and in Lehigh.

Problems began earlier this year when the planning panel formed the ARB under its umbrella. The ARB charges sliding scale fees for such organizations to come before them. They claim it takes care of expenses to do their task.

Commissioner Frank LaRosa was the first to object to the formation of the ARB and also complained about the board of which he sits, claiming it was an illegal group that has never been appointed to ask developers to come before them. He said the LACPP was the outgrowth of an earlier group that had been formed to work with the community to come up with a community plan. That has been done and county planners are busy implementing that plan into the county’s overall plan.

When the issue was raised earlier, Kathie Ebaugh, the county’s principal planner, explained that any developer or planner can set his or her own meeting place and advertise it, make a record of the meeting and submit it to the county.

During the dispute on the board, those opposing the LACPP forced them out of the Veterans Park Community Room where there was no charge to meet. The reason was given that the group was not an official county appointed board.

Since then for the past few months, the LACPP has been given space to meet at the Bravo Station’s Annex without charge.

Now a second group, Weiner said, made up of LaRosa and Paul Lambertucci and perhaps others, wants to meet at the Sheriff’s Annex to provide a place for future planners and builders to come and make presentations.

“That is a conflict of interest in my mind,” Weiner said last week. Others, such as Jacqui Hill, LACPP’s secretary, and board member Tami Baker, its treasurer, agreed. Weiner told Pinder, who asked why the group couldn’t ask for county recognition and was told by Weiner that is was all about money that the county didn’t want to spend, to provide a secretary and an attorney at each such hearing.

In the course of the controversy, ugly e-mail has been circulated around town concerning the dispute. In one, the opponents to Weiner said they thought he should resign.

“I’ll put it on the agenda for the next meeting. If Mr. LaRosa and Mr. Lambertucci want to do this, it is nothing but a conflict of interest and they should resign anyway because of that.”

Baker said that she believes Lambertucci has missed four meetings anyway and under the group’s bylaws has to be removed from the board.

LaRosa has been on the board longer than anyone else. In fact, he may have been on the original board when it was formed to help form a plan for future Lehigh five or six years ago.

Over the years, several people have joined the board and for different reasons, left. Some left after the job of developing a Lehigh Plan. There are currently a couple of openings on the LACPP. If you’re interested in joining, contact Weiner at PO Box 157, Lehigh Acres, FL. 33970-0157. Send a short resume and your reasons for wanting to serve on the board.