Jesse Lavender

Enhancements will begin at Lehigh Acres Park as soon as the end of July.

The County Lee Board of County Commissioners approved the measure Tuesday, including an expansion, due to a vacant lot of 41 acres.

“It is slated to start either later on in July, or August,” Parks Director Jesse Lavender said.

The Lehigh Acres Park was donated to the county by the Lehigh Cooperation in 1976-1977. The park had tennis courts, a baseball and softball field in 1977. In 1986, a pool was added.

“We have done some updates to the playground over the years, but nothing substantial like this,” he said.

The project, which has a price tag of $16.6 million, has a tentative completion of December 2023. The construction manager of the project is Chris-Tel Company of Southwest Florida.

Lavender said the project is much needed not only to expand, but to provide separate facilities, such as fields for both the football and baseball league.

“What happens and what is still happening until this project is done is football takes over all the fields in the fall and baseball takes it back over after football is done,” he said. “Florida can play sports year round. There are a lot of scheduling issues because both groups wanted field space during certain times of the year. It will completely alleviate that in the future.”

According to the county, the Lehigh Acres Raiders Football League will provide the kitchen equipment for the concession building, as well as scoreboards for the football fields.

The expansion will also help the Lehigh Acres pool, as it is probably the most used pool in the county. The help comes in with additional parking on the increased acreage.

“When you have all those different groups at the park at the same time there is generally not enough parking,” Lavender said.

The vacant land will help with the expansion of three football fields with lighting, permanent restroom facilities, a disc golf course, concession building, locker rooms, paved parking lot, pavilions and nature trails.

Lavender said there is also some potential for new fishing areas for the public to try out. 

“It’s going to be a really nice addition,” he said. “It’s really a great enhancement for Lehigh Acres.”

The project also includes enhancements to the existing park of four pickleball courts, as well as the relocation of the batting cage and the construction of a covered maintenance building.

“They are going to have to do some work to the large baseball field, but it shouldn’t impact anything but that field,” Lavender said. “Right now we have a large high school sized baseball field. The outfield of that field is where the football stadium is. We are putting a more permanent baseball fence there. The pickleball courts (will be) added in that location that we don’t need anymore for baseball.”

Lehigh Acres Park is at 1400 W. 5th St.