Estero Village Council unanimously approved an ordinance with six deviations Wednesday to rezone a 45.6-acre parcel from mixed-use planned development to Estero planned development. The rezoning will allow for a mixed-use development known as Woodfield Estero on the northwest corner of U.S. 41 and Coconut Road. 

Woodfield Estero is planned for 596 multifamily units, 82,000 square feet of retail and dining, 42,000 square feet of office and a 260-room hotel. There also will be a public park and civic uses.   

For the project to move forward, a rezoning was necessary because the property was rezoned for mixed-use planned development by Lee County in 1998. 

“The site plan that was approved at the time had a strip commercial along the front of the property, larger commercial in the middle and light industrial on the backside of the property by the residences,” Community Development Director Mary Gibbs said. 

There also was a development order approved on the property that has since expired, making a rezone necessary for a new site plan.  

Council raised questions at the first reading last month for the developer to address at the second reading. Among those concerns were traffic and transportation, parking capacity, connectivity for the bicycling community and a bigger civic building, with Mayor Jon McLain suggesting a 6,000-square-foot building as opposed to the 3,000-square-foot building proposed by the applicant. 

Previous owner Lee Health sold the land to South Carolina-based Woodfield Development. Prior to the sale, Lee Health was working with town-planning firm Dover, Kohl
& Partners on plans for the site. Woodfield carried on the partnership with modifications to some of the original plans.    

“We made a commitment from the start that we were going to build upon the goodwill that Lee Health and the village of Estero had worked toward designing this project before we got involved, and we remain committed to that today,” said Ross Abramson, who was representing Woodfield Development. 

The development is intended to be a walkable community, with its conceptual master plan designed to encourage daily activity.  

“That is an idea that started with this project when we did the initial plan for Lee Health and then has remained with it, as Woodfield asked us to continue on it and adapt it in order to accommodate their development program,” said Victor Dover, founding principal of Dover, Kohl & Partners. 

While the project is aimed toward promoting walkable communities, Woodfield could also be a major attraction to neighboring residents. With that came concern surrounding traffic and transportation in an area that already experiences congestion.  

Billy Hattaway, principal at Fehr & Peers transportation consulting firm, explained an initial traffic study was done with 2021 and 2022 village traffic reports. Hattaway and transportation engineer Elizabeth Suarez have since redone the study with the 2023 traffic report, which had a 14% increase from previous traffic counts. 

The study determined there was no new level of service deficiencies because of the project, also accounting for traffic from neighboring developments that have been approved in the area. 

“We’re not saying that people are just flying through the intersections, there is still a little bit of friction there,” Suarez said. “And that’s actually pretty normal for communities to have that as a level-of-service standard.”  

The village completed its own traffic study of Coconut Road to compare to Fehr & Peers’ results, with there still being no identified effects on the level of service. 

Parking concerns were addressed, as the village determined it’s comfortable with the deviation from 2,107 spaces to 1,872 spaces. The reduced number of spots accounts for an additional 15% of parking spots needed. 

Language was written into the ordinance to ensure the project remains mixed-use during phasing and construction.  

McLain’s concerns with the size of the civic building also were addressed, with the village and applicant agreeing to a condition that the building will be a minimum of 4,500 square feet and a maximum of 6,000 square feet. The project also will incorporate 10-foot-wide bike and pedestrian trails.  

“The Woodfield development program was really guided by, again, the comprehensive plan for the village and this village center land use,” said Alexis Crespo with RVi Planning. “It speaks to wanting vertically integrated mixed use. It speaks to wanting to create vibrant public spaces, interconnectivity and the ability to live, work and play in the same project.”