provided to The Santiva Chronicle
The Captiva Civic Association, representing the Protect Captiva coalition, filed a petition Monday, Jan. 8 with Lee County challenging the new land development regulations increasing building heights across the island, and building height and hotel density at South Seas Island Resort on the north tip of the island.
“The communities of Captiva and Sanibel came out in force and tried everything possible to convince the Board of County Commissioners to maintain the long-established height and density regulations that protect our fragile barrier island,” said CCA and Protect Captiva representative Lisa Riordan. “The Commissioners completely ignored their constituency – giving us no choice but to commence litigation.”
Florida law requires all land development regulations enacted shall be consistent with the adopted Comprehensive Plan of Lee County. Under the guise and “false flag” of resiliency, Lee County adopted new land development regulations on Sept. 5, 2023. These regulations have little do with resiliency and are not lawfully consistent with the Comprehensive Plan.
While the Captiva chapter of the county’s Comprehensive Plan protects Captiva by continuing land use patterns that maintain historic low-density development, the new land development regulations exempt South Seas Resort from all Captiva height and hotel density limits. They also permit three rather than the historic two habitable floors on the island’s residential dwellings.
“The radical increase in building heights and density at South Seas is inconsistent with the historic development of the resort and sets a precedent for over-development that will inevitably change the unique and special character of Captiva,” said Jay Brown, president of the Captiva Community Panel.
In an effort to take advantage of the new land development regulations, South Seas submitted a plan application on Dec. 15, 2023 which increases density from 247 units to 707 units with new buildings as high as 64 feet – almost twice as high as currently permitted on South Seas and almost 50 percent higher than currently allowed on Captiva.
“The new land development regulations and the increases in heights and density sought by South Seas are totally inconsistent with Captiva’s current infrastructure, its limited hurricane evacuation capability and its environment resources,” said Sanibel Captiva Conservation Foundation CEO James Evans.
“Captiva is a fragile barrier island which cannot absorb the development projects south by South Seas,” said Evans. “The community has no choice but to contest these unwise and unacceptable changes in the court of law.”
To learn more about Protect Captiva and its fight to protect the island, visit its website here.
I hope Lee county residents keep this experience in mind when they VOTE!