Land development disaster
To the editor:
Much to my dismay, my partner and I will be leaving Pine Island on Saturday, March 7, after a two-month respite from winter up north. We will return to our recently purchased 1962 cottage in Bokeelia once we have sold our homes in New York and Massachusetts. We hope to live here year round.
I am truly discouraged that I will not be able to attend the rescheduled meeting on March 17 with your county commissioners.
Eager developers and their attorneys are hell bent on changing your long standing zoning bylaws in an attempt to carve up one of the last strongholds of “Old Florida,” your Pine Island! Should they succeed in their efforts, the result will have dire consequences for you and yours.
I have resided on Cape Cod in the state of Massachusetts since the early ’70s and have witnessed first hand the demise of our quality of life due to rampant over-development. Persistent land grabbing by developers has led to many problems some of which are:
1. Severe algae blooms in our lakes and estuaries as a result of nitrogen overloading. The result is the perpetual killing of eelgrass beds and the consequential destruction of habitats needed for fish, including shellfish, to spawn and grow to maturity
2. Summer fish kills are becoming more frequent and shellfish beds are closing due to high coliform counts.
3. Cape Cod sits on a sole source aquifer as does, I believe, Pine Island. Water shortages and water use restrictions are now commonplace year round.
4. What fresh water we have is being tainted by substances not made for human consumption including petroleum byproducts and flushed outdated pharmaceuticals!
5. Traffic bottlenecks Cape-wide are commonplace even in our off season. If build-out becomes a reality, the Cape will be in total gridlock and tourists will no longer visit our shores. An unforeseen calamity could mean no escape.
6. We have two bridges from the mainland and the infinite wisdom of some of our “planners” is to build yet another. Sound familiar?
7. Finally, and most important, our taxes are on the rise to pay for the remediation of our faulty land use planning. The cost of new wastewater treatment facilities will run into the millions and millions of dollars.
Pine Island – be proactive – speak up loud and clear before it’s too late. Attend the meeting with the commissioners in Fort Myers on March 17. Moderate and smart growth is one thing, but the unabated land grabbing by large developers is another and in the end you will be the ones to pay.
Dean A. Ayres
Bokeelia