County meeting was informational and well attended
To the editor:
Attendance at the presentation was very good for this time of year – in fact, the hall was loaded to capacity. I know of some people that gave up attending because they could not find a parking space.
The Lee County staff, led by Commissioner Manning, did a very professional and effective presentation. Practically all questions reflected skepticism of their contention that our present evacuation procedures are adequate. Otherwise, they encountered very little criticism.
County Attorney Richard Wesch made two very exciting surprise announcements. He said they had settled all eight Bert Harris cases for some $4.2 million, including attorney fees and all, plus Lee County will become the owner of the development rights on all of those properties. He also said they were going to (at least for now) drop the provisions proposing a tax (MSBU or MSTU) on Pine Islanders to buy development rights. Both items are great news!
I submitted, on behalf of the Pine Island Planning Committee, two proposed changes to the draft plan rewrite. One restoring the requirement for open space in new developments and one providing a suitable replacement for the 810 rule (which prohibited new development that would significantly increase traffic through Matlacha). I labelled both provisions critical to our approval of the rewritten Plan.
Phil Buchanan
St James City