Community Planning Areas in the Crosshairs

Lee County Proposes Changes to Lee Plan that Raise Questions & Concerns for Pine Island

On Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2026, Lee County staff hosted a public information session on changes that are being proposed for the Lee County Comprehensive Plan (Lee Plan) — which guides development in Lee County — and the Lee County Land Development Code (LDC), which provides the detailed regulations that enact the Lee Plan.

GPICA Board Members attended the meeting and hosted a livestream of the event on our Facebook page. That recording is now archived to our YouTube channel and is available below. Here, we also provide the county staff’s powerpoint presentation materials, along with the full documents containing all of the proposed changes.

We are currently reviewing all of these documents to determine the impact on Pine Island and how best to voice our comments about the changes.
While our initial review shows that specific density and height restrictions currently in place on the island will remain, we are concerned that the proposed changes completely delete Goal 24 of the Lee Plan and Chapter 33 of the LDC.
- Chapter 33 specifically contains the Community Plan Area regulations for places like Pine Island, Buckingham, Lehigh Acres, etc. It also removes certain provisions for Public Information Sessions required for proposed developments — meaning residents will have even less power to speak up about growth and development in their communities than they do right now.
- Goal 24 is the stated purpose of the the Pine Island plan: “[to] Manage future growth on and around Greater Pine Island so as to: maintain the island’s unique natural resources, rural character, and coastal environment; support the viable and productive agricultural community and other local businesses; and to protect the public health, safety and welfare…”

For Pine Island, a close reading of the document shows that while some of the specific Greater Pine Island-specific Comprehensive Plan’s regulatory protections are moved to other sections of the code for streamlining and ease-of-use purposes not ALL of the existing regulatory protections are included.

This is troubling.

We are not alone in our concerns about the removal of Chapter 33 and we’re working with the Matlacha Civic Association and reaching out to stakeholders in other Lee County enclaves in hopes of working together to address our concerns with county staff and elected officials.

Please take action:

If you’re not receiving our emails, please sign up now, as we will be sharing updates as we are able.
If you are not currently a GPICA member, we urge you to join now to add your voice to this discussion and show county officials that the rules governing current and future growth on the island — the same rules that support safe hurricane evacuations and help to protect our coastal-rural way of life — are as important today as they were when they were first adopted in 1988. Click here to join today.
Please attend the next meeting of the Local Planning Agency at 9 a.m. Monday, Aug. 31, at the Old Lee County Courthouse, 2120 Main Street, Fort Myers, 33901. The meeting will take place in the Board Chamber on the second floor. This meeting is the first public forum where residents can speak up about changes to the Lee Plan and the LDC. After the LPA approves the changes, they will go before the Lee County Commissioners. Only one hearing is required before that Board may vote to enact the new rules. (While only one is required, Commissioners can certainly vote to hold the rules for more comment and/or direct staff to make changes.)
Make a comment at the meeting or submit comments in writing in advance of the meeting:
- Written Comments: The public may provide written comments on proposed amendments before the date of a public hearing at which consideration of the amendment is scheduled. Written comments may be submitted to the Planning Section of the Department of Community Development. (See below for email list.)
- Written Comments: May also be presented at any public hearing provided that the commentator supplies at least ten (10) copies of such comments to distribute to the LPA, or to the Board, whichever is applicable, the recording secretary and staff.
  - Please check back here later for some talking points to help you pull your comments together.
- Speak at the LPA Meeting: The public may provide oral comments on a proposed amendment at any public hearing on the amendment. The right to comment will be subject to reasonable time limits imposed by the Chairman. Comments that are irrelevant, immaterial, repetitive, spurious, defamatory, or out of order, will not be allowed.

Please bookmark this page and check back for updates regularly.

Documents

Recording: Lee County Public Information Session

Email List for Written Comments

Mikki Rozdolski, Director of Community Development, MRozdolski@leegov.com
Rebecca Sweigert, Senior Manager of Operations, RSweigert@leegov.com
Adam Mendez, Principal Planner, AMendez@leegov.com
Brandon Dunn, Planning Manager, BDunn@leegov.com
Janet Miller, Administrative Specialist, Community Development, JMiller@leegov.com (ask her to transmit them to the LPA Board and included as written comments for Mondays hearing)
Lee County Commissioners
Kevin Ruane, our District 1 Representative, dist1@leegov.com
Cecil Pendergrass, District 2, dist2@leegov.com
David Mulicka, District 3, dist3@leegov.com
Brian Hamman, District 4, dist4@leegov.com
Trish Petrosky, District 5, dist5@leegov.com

Proposed Lee Plan Changes