A 66.5-acre parcel off Bayshore Road in North Fort Myers, just west of Interstate 75, is in the process of being rezoned from agricultural to residential.
The developer, officially named Bayshore 65 LLC, is seeking to build up to 357 homes, including no more than 250 single-family homes, and about 80,000 square feet of commercial development. The land is bordered by Bayshore Road to the north and Samville Road, which curves around the parcel, to the south.
Bayshore 65 LLC, which is owned in part by Randy Thibaut, founder of the LSI Companies land brokerage firm, paid $2.35 million for the land in January 2021. Thibaut and colleague William Rollins brokered the deal themselves, while Gary Tasman of Cushman & Wakefield represented the sellers, the Jean Moltrup and Kathryn Zuberbuhler trusts.
As part of the legal, rezoning process, the developer invited residents to attend an informational meeting Tuesday night at the North Fort Myers Recreation Center.
Between 15 and 20 neighbors attended, including Ron Strine, and expressed their concerns.
“The two major concerns were water drainage, which is a big deal in that area,” Strine said. “It’s a problem. So that was a major concern. And frankly, they said, ‘We’re going to put in a lake. We’re going to guarantee the water drainage will be no more than there is now.’ But we know better. The water drainage is a problem. The county’s been out and dug some ditches to try and make it better. When you put asphalt down instead of the natural landscape—we know better. That’s my opinion.”
Another concern Strine and others expressed regarded traffic. Samville Road is a two-lane road with no shoulder or sidewalk. Because county codes require developments like this one to have two entrances, it would have to have access to Samville Road.
“It’s too narrow,” Strine said. “Samville’s just not going to be adequate. We felt like the infrastructure couldn’t handle it. We are having problems now, in the height of the tourist season, just getting out on the road. They were also going to add a commercial component.”
The commercial development would go on the northeast corner, just west of a truck stop.
Barbara Perry and Oscar Rico each also live nearby and attended the meeting.
They each said they have concerns over the fate of the gopher tortoises they said they have seen emerging from that property over the years.
“We’ve had a quiet life here for a long time,” Perry said. “We didn’t want to be bombarded by all this traffic.”
Ron Inge attended the meeting on behalf of the development group.
“All the concerns we will take into account to make sure we do the right thing,” Inge said. “We don’t have all the answers yet.
“There were some really good folks there who have some concerns. And we’ll take a look at all of them. These things take time. It’s a multi-year process. This isn’t something that just happens very quickly.”
Dick Thomas, a retired architect, is president and a community volunteer with the North Fort Myers Design Review Panel. He facilitated the meeting. He said his group would type up some minutes from the meeting and pass them along to Lee County staff.
Lee County staff did not attend the meeting.
“As we go further along in the process, there are other hearings and other milestones that they have to pass,” Thomas said of the developers. “Once this meeting happens, the county takes over and can do studies on traffic and the wildlife and things of that nature.”
