Lee County issued 994 single-family building permits in April, five times the increase from a year ago than the whole of Southwest Florida, which saw a 3% increase.
A total of 1,514 permits for single-family home construction were issued in Southwest Florida in April, the latest month for which information is available, according to Florida Gulf Coast University Regional Economic Research Institute.
Thousands of homes, single-family and multi-family, have been approved, are in the planning stages or are under construction throughout the county, in cities including Cape Coral, Fort Myers and Estero, as well as in unincorporated areas.
What are some of the communities being built or planned in Lee County?
As many as 10,000 homes have been approved for Cameratta Companies’ Kingston development on 6,702 acres of former farmland located in unincorporated Lee County off of Corkscrew Road and State Road 82 on the border with Collier County.
Verdana Village, another Cameratta community in unincorporated Lee near the Village of Estero, has been approved for 2,400 units, and phase 1 is under construction for 600 units on a 710-acre site. The Shoppes at Verdana Village, with 78,000 square feet of total shopping space, is open with a Publix anchoring it.
Babcock Ranch, a mega community mostly in Charlotte County, proposed an increase in its Lee County residential units to 2,078 from 1,630. The Lee County Babcock land is east of State Road 31 and north of North River Road in north Olga. The proposal also would cut the number of approved hotel rooms from to 250 from 600 and expand an on-site preservation area to 2,613 acres from 2,379 acres. The change also would shrink the size of the development by 154 acres to be transferred to the state for rebuilding State Road 31.
In Alva, residents filed a legal zoning appeal on April 5 to a 788-acre development in nearby Olga where zoning was approved by Lee County commissioners. The community was approved for 1,099 homes on about half the acreage, with 420 acres preserved under conservation easements.
In the Village of Estero, Coconut Pointe Residences is a planned 137-unit apartment complex to take the place of a long-closed Winn-Dixie grocery store near The Brooks, a 2,492-acre master-planned development..
Woodfield Estero received Village of Estero Planning, Zoning and Design approved in February for 538 multi-family units; 58 townhomes; 28,000 square feet of residential amenities; 20,000 square feet of medical space; 22,000 square feet of office space; 82,000 square feet of retail and dining; 3,000 square feet of civic space; 200,000 square feet of hotel space with 260 rooms; and four parking garages with 2,036 spaces. The property is a 45.6-acre site on the northwest corner of US 41 and Coconut Road, across from Coconut Point Mall.
In Cape Coral, a 1,745-acre stretch of raw land known as Hudson Creek is approved and soon to start construction for up to 3,500 homes and as much as 425,000 square feet of shops and restaurants, along with other commercial uses, including a 500-room hotel. Located east of Burnt Store Road and northwest of Wilmington Parkway, the planned community abuts the Yucca Pens Preserve in northwest Cape Coral.
Also in Cape Coral, a 350-acre parcel south of Rotary Park called Redfish Pointe is planned for 800 residential units, a 300-bed resort hotel and 38,000 to 50,000 square feet of commercial space. Still in the approval stages, Cape Coral staff are recommending denial, saying the proposal is “wholly incompatible with the protection and conservation of nearby wetlands.
In Fort Myers Beach, Town Council recently approved Moss Marina entertainment complex and hotel called Arches Bayfront. Changing several zoned residential properties to commercial as part of adding to the marina, the latest plans call for a 263-room hotel and other structures rising to about 100 feet featuring dining, bars and retail along a bayfront promenade wedged between Old San Carlos Boulevard and a neighborhood.
This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Fort Myers, Lee County, FL: What new communities being built, planned?