Lee County considers major new development in North Fort Myers

Reporter: Asha Patel Writer: Joey Pellegrino
Published:
A tract of land along Bayshore Road and Pritchett Parkway in North Fort Myers awaiting potential development. Credit: WINK News

On Wednesday, Lee County will consider the future of a development in North Fort Myers encompassing new houses, senior living facilities and townhomes as it looks at zoning to deal with the housing crisis.

A developer is looking to add more single-family units and senior housing along Pritchett Parkway and Bayshore Road. As the area currently exists, there are lots of trees and not many buildings or businesses. In addition to those 1,500 units, the developer also wants to add a country club and convert 590 single-family dwelling units into senior housing.

Barbara Miller, who has lived in the area for 40 years, says that while she is happy to see development, she is concerned with the number of people that will be coming to the area and the traffic that could result.

“Bayshore is the only exit from Cape Coral to I-75 for, like, hurricanes and stuff like that, and Love’s [Travel Stop] slows down traffic a lot, so, more communities… just more traffic,” Miller said.

Traffic on Bayshore Road as seen from the undeveloped land next to it. Credit: WINK News

Dan Flynn, who has lived in the area for six years, says he enjoys driving along that road and seeing the trees, and he’s worried new development is going to remove that simple pleasure in favor of even more traffic.

“I’d love more rural areas and they’re becoming less and less,” Flynn said. “I can see why they’re all coming down here and things like [the] corona[virus] just sped things up, but I don’t see it slowing down — even though, personally, if I could wave a magic wand and have my way, I would stop them.”

The Lee County Zoning and Planning Commission is scheduled to discuss this project and a similar project on Owl Creek Drive in which a developer wants to add more multi-family homes.

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