Ask yourself one question
To the Editor:
I have been reading with interest, the topic of a new strip mall on Pine Island Road, housing an anticipated new grocery store plus many other shops. In the initial stages of this discussion, I found it amusing.
After all, didn’t we just go through this debate when Walgreens decided to build a 14,000-square-foot store at Pine Island Center? The issues of traffic, hurricane evacuation, architecture, a traffic light, parking and the just plain simple question of whether the island needed or could support another mega drug store were also discussed. And to my recollection, the islanders decided the answers to all these issues was “no the Walgreens.”
Now we have yet another developer who wants to change our lifestyle forever. Another developer who wants to get variances from the county to make a profit at our expense. Granted, they are going to all the appropriate groups to discuss and hear their issues. But, appropriate groups or not, I am wondering why we need to give away a portion of our island paradise to the whims of developers? First of all, do we really need a Publix, or another grocery store on the Island? Winn-Dixie has been a wonderful neighbor to us all. They have been there in the aftermath of Charley and for many charitable organizations over the years. Yes, shopping there can be frustrating at times concerning their variety or stock-outs. But, they have been our grocery store in good times and bad. And besides, this is supposed to be a remote island, or at least as remote as an Island can be within 30 miles of downtown Fort Myers. People who live on remote Islands do it for a reason. They like being out of the way. They are willing to put up with certain hardships in order to keep their isolation and solitude. People in the Bahamas have to wait for a certain day of the week for the grocery boat to come in. While we don’t have it quite that bad, there are times when we just have to go off the Island to find what we are looking for. But, and this is the big but, we always have our peaceful island to come back to after our forays across the big water. There are those people who find paradise and say, “What a wonderful place, let’s live here.” There are others that say, “What a wonderful place, let’s live here, but we need to have better dry cleaner.”
Now a developer, wants to feed on that better dry cleaner mentality and change our Island paradise, yet again. And this time it won’t just be a 14,000-square-foot footprint. It will be many, many thousands of square feet of island vegetation plowed under and paved over. I’m sure many of you have driven on Pine Island Road east past the Burnt Store Road intersection, where the road widens to four lanes. Just look at what has happened to that piece of land over the last few years. One strip mall after the other, with most of the store fronts empty. And, I guess the the suburbanite crowd among us, thinks that this is just wonderful. All those shops to explore and all those opportunities to buy goods and services. Goods and services that they can’t find on Pine Island. There is even a Publix, just five miles off island, that can service those needs that Winn-Dixie fails to provide.
Just imagine Publix, or another major store coming to the Island, competing with our island-friendly Winn-Dixie. Imagine that either of them can’t make it due to the low year-round population on the Island.
Now imagine one or the other strip mall losing its major tenant and a blighted strip mall in its place. Imagine a widened Pine Island Road to accommodate left turning lanes. But most of all, imagine other developers coming in to ask for variances to build other strip malls and shops there. Who’s to stop them? Where will it end? Architecturally sound or not, these events will change our lifestyle forever.
So I ask you to ask yourself one question. Is this really what you want? Do you really want our Pine Island road to become Cape Coral?
Mark N. Strom
Bokeelia