Captiva Land Use Issue

Land The Captiva Civic Association’s mission is “preserving the quality of life, ambiance, and environmental integrity of this unique barrier island community.” In fact, the CCA has a very specific Land Use Policy in its Bylaws. If you are a CCA member, this policy in its entirety can be found on pages 54 and 55 in the 2023 member directory, in the bylaws section. An excerpt from this section is as follows:

“The CCA, in accordance with its mission, shall work with governmental authorities, property owners, and other associations to…maintain the strict limits on density and height as currently stated in the Lee County Comprehensive Plan, and to oppose any exceptions sought through the variance process.”

A Lee County Board of Commissioners agenda item with proposed changes to density and height codes on Captiva was not presented to the community in an acceptable fashion, disregarding protocols that were established for such proposed changes. This happened covertly with very little time for public input.

The timeline and the CCA’s immediate response was as follows:

On the evening of Friday, June 2, our Land Use Committee Chair became aware of the concerning agenda item that was going to be on the upcoming Tuesday’s Lee County Board of Commissioners meeting.
An emergency CCA Board of Governors meeting was called for Monday, June 5, and from the results of this meeting a letter was drafted and sent to all five County Commissioners.
This letter stated that the CCA Board had voted unanimously to request “that the Board of County Commissioners defer Item 8 of the Consent Agenda (Direct to Public Hearing LDC Amendments for Building Height, Resiliency, South Seas) and to not direct this matter to public hearing on June 20, 2023,” further citing reasons of concern that the changes proposed had not been properly shared with the Captiva community, by holding the meeting on June 20, when many are away and people are still dealing with hurricane impacts, community members will not have an appropriate opportunity to provide input, and that the proposed changes will have a major impact on the future of the island.
The CCA had a representative submit the letter at the Board of Commissioner’s meeting the next day in person, but unfortunately the agenda item was passed unanimously by all five commissioners.

Now the CCA is working diligently with other community organizations to help get the word out to community members about the June 20 meeting, to learn more about what the proposed changes will entail, and inform them of ways to take action if they would like to do so.

Please read the informational letter below. Additionally, the CCA and other community organizations are working to set up a community-wide meeting, via Zoom, for early next week to help inform the community of this proposal and answer questions. The CCA will continue to send updates as soon as new information becomes available, please keep an eye out for more information.