Lee County’s planning staff organized a public presentation on the issue of pre-platted lots for Lehigh Acres in October. The meeting included discussion with business leaders, local legislators, planners and students and included discussion on finding solutions for Southwest Florida’s problem: how to grow healthy, thriving communities in locales where each lot has already been platted or spoken for by individual owners.

The goal of this meeting on Oct. 14 was to initiate tackling this problem as a means of strengthening economic opportunity in pre-platted communities that include Cape Coral, Lehigh Acres and Port Charlotte.

This one-day seminar included attendance by State Rep. Matt Caldwell and State Rep. Gary Aubuchon, Lee County Commissioner Frank Mann, former Commissioner Adam Cummings of Charlotte County, and Cape Coral Mayor John Sullivan.

EnSite is a leading planning and design firm, offering services in land planning, visioning, site design, civil engineering and landscape design to both the public and private sectors with a major focus in Southwest and South Central Florida.

EnSite has been working with the Lee County planning staff toward developing an urban footprint for three activity centers in Lehigh Acres. The purpose of the project is to create development concepts for downtown, community and neighborhood centers that will serve as future urban centers and focal points for the community.

The existing development pattern of Lehigh Acres is largely comprised of small, residential platted lots and lacks commerce centers that can serve the needs of the community and provide a sense of place.

The concepts for development will be based on Lee County’s Compact Communities zoning district, which encourages compact, mixed-use development, where residents can shop, work, live and play and is based on the premise of creating walkable neighborhoods that reduce the need to drive for basic services.

It is hoped that this effort will become a reality and help the community of Lehigh Acres become a successful, enterprising part of Lee County.

The next community meeting is scheduled for January 14, 2012 and will be held at the East Lee County Library from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. These meetings are informative and open to the public.