Part of the mission of the Captiva Community Panel is to preserve, protect, and defend our island from unwanted changes. In particular, the Panel seeks to prevent the kind of wild development that could ruin our island as so many of Florida's coastal islands have been ruined. To accomplish this, the Community Panel has recommended a group of amendments to the Lee County Comprehensive Land Use Plan. The Board of County Commissioners approved these proposed

amendments, and they have since been passed along to the appropriate state agencies for fine tuning before final approval by both Captivans and the Lee County Board of County Commissioners.

The Captiva Plan

October 2005

GOAL 13: CAPTIVA

To maintain and enhance the historic pattern of development on Captiva, consisting of unobtrusive, low-density residential use in an environment characterized by diverse and healthy native vegetation, clean offshore water with diverse and healthy marine life, and limited commercial development and traffic. The purpose of this goal is to provide policies to confirm and reinforce that historic pattern. (Added by Ordinance No. 03-01).

OBJECTIVE 13.1: Develop and maintain incentive and/or regulatory programs to ensure the long-term protection and enhancement of wetland habitats, water quality, natural upland habitats, community facilities, existing land use patterns, infrastructure capacity, and historically significant features on Captiva Island. (Added by Ordinance No. 03-01).

POLICY 13.1.1: No subdivisions of parcels that were zoned RSC-2 (Captiva Estate) on January 1, 2002, regardless of their zoning at any time thereafter, may be permitted unless all of the resulting lots comply with all of the minimum lot size and dimensional requirements in the RSC-2 district. (Added by Ordinance No. 03-01).

POLICY 13.1.2: No building or structure may be erected or altered so that the peak of the roof exceeds 35 feet above the average grade of the lot in question or 42 feet above mean sea level, whichever is lower. (Added by Ordinance No. 03-01).

POLICY 13.1.3: Lee County will encourage and support efforts by Captivans to strengthen existing vegetation ordinances to establish a landscaping code for Captiva Island that will require all new development, including single family residences, to implement minimum landscaping requirements intended to preserve, promote, and enhance the existing native vegetation and tree canopy on the Island. New landscaping requirements will focus on areas including, but not limited to, buffering and separation between new structures and Captiva Drive, buffering between adjoining properties, preservation and enhancement of native plant communities including, but not limited to, beach dune community, tropical hardwood hammock, coastal scrub and mangroves. (Added by Ordinance No. 03-01).

POLICY 13.1.4: Lee County will continue to support the effort of the Captiva Erosion Prevention District, a beach and shore preservation authority under provisions of Chapter 161, Florida Statutes, to preserve, protect and maintain CaptivaÕs beaches using environmentally responsible methods. (Added by Ordinance No. 03-01).

POLICY 13.1.5: Lee County will encourage and support efforts by the Captiva community to investigate and recommend measures that will improve water quality in Pine Island Sound and the Gulf of Mexico adjacent to Captiva Island. Such measures may include sewers only if sized to limit development to that permitted by this plan. (Added by Ordinance No. 03-01).

POLICY 13.1.6: The Captiva Island Community will establish a Òdocument clearing houseÓ on Captiva, where copies of selected zoning submittal documents, staff reports, Hearing Examiner recommendations and resolutions will be provided for public inspection. The CountyÕs failure to provide or to timely provide documents to the document clearing house, or failure of the document clearing house to receive documents, will not constitute a defect in notice or bar a public hearing from occurring as scheduled. (Added by Ordinance No. 03-01).

POLICY 13.1.7: The owner or agent for any rezoning, variance, or special exception request within the Captiva Planning Community must conduct one public informational session on Captiva where the agent will provide a general overview of the project for any interested citizens. Lee County encourages zoning staff to participate in such public workshops. This meeting must be conducted before the application can be found sufficient. The applicant is fully responsible for providing the meeting space and providing security measures as needed. Subsequent to this meeting, the applicant must provide county staff with a meeting summary document that contains the following information: the date, time, and location of the meeting; a list of attendees; a summary of the concerns or issues that were raised at the meeting; and a proposal for how the applicant will respond to any issues that were raised. (Added by Ordinance No. 03-01).

POLICY 13.1.8: Lee County will encourage and support the solicitation of the widest possible range of public input for any future Lee Plan amendments that directly apply to Captiva or the policies adopted for Captiva under this section of the Lee Plan. To that end, Lee County is committed to provide continuing assistance to the Captiva Community as part of the Evaluation and Appraisal Report process as well as ongoing technical expertise related to the functioning of the adopted policies. (Added by Ordinance No. 03-01).

POLICY 13.1.9: Lee County will encourage and support efforts by Captivans to develop and submit ordinances that will encourage the siting and building of structures consistent with the historical character of the island. (Added by Ordinance No. 03-01).

POLICY 13.1.10: New requests for residential re-zoning that would increase density on said property above current zoning will not be permitted.

POLICY 13.1.12: Variances should be limited to unique, specifically authorized circumstances and will be allowed only in situations where unnecessary hardship would otherwise occur; i.e., where all of the following are met:

• Where the hardship cannot be corrected by other means allowed in the ordinances,
• Where strict compliance of the regulations allows the property owner no reasonable use of the property,
• Where the variance will not constitute a grant of special privilege inconsistent with the limitation upon uses of other properties located on the same street and within the same Future Land Use category, unless denial of the variance would allow no reasonable use of the property,
• Where the applicant did not cause the need for the variance, and
• Where the variance is not contrary to the spirit of the ordinance.

POLICY 13.1.13: Mangroves on Captiva Island will be protected to the greatest extent possible.

POLICY 13.1.14: Indigenous or native trees will be replanted and maintained along Captiva Drive between Blind Pass and the north end of Captiva Drive. The replanting of trees within the Captiva Drive right-of-way is needed to replace the loss of tree canopy following Hurricane Charley. A comprehensive Captiva Drive landscape plan that addresses specific native tree species, tree placement, public safety, access and utilities to facilitate the restoration of tree canopy will be created. The comprehensive Captiva Drive landscape plan will identify funding sources for implementing the plan and will designate the entity or entities responsible for long term maintenance.

POLICY 13.1.15: Notwithstanding anything pertaining to Captiva Community Plan Height Restriction Policy 13.1.2, due to the unique degree of public interest attached to it regarding emergency communications services, the existing telecommunications tower facility located in the maintenance and engineering area of South Seas Resort may be replaced in such area to a height not to exceed 170 feet, provided that said new facility makes space available to the county for adequate emergency communications service coverage for Captiva, as well as co-location capability for all wireless carriers desirous of serving Captiva. Destruction of mangroves will not be allowed in order to build or operate such a tower or related tower facilities. The telecommunication tower will be a monopole, unless public safety is compromised.

POLICY 84.1.4: By the end of 2006, Lee County will amend the Lee County Land Development Code to establish a sufficient setback requirement for the placement of fill adjacent to existing mangroves or require development designs that address the interface of fill areas with existing mangroves to eliminate impacts from fill sloughing or washing into mangrove areas. Techniques to accomplish this include, but are not limited to: setbacks; stabilized slopes; retaining walls; and, rip rap revetments.