Lee County hearing examiner hears rezoning request for 6.18-acre Linton Road RPD
March 05, 2026 | Lee County, Florida
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Donna Marie Collins, the Lee County hearing examiner, opened a public hearing on DCI-2023-00042 and heard testimony on a proposed rezoning of roughly 6.18 acres on Linton Road to a residential planned development (RPD) that would allow a maximum of 12 single‑family detached homes and up to 14 private wet slips accessory to those units.
Applicant planner Jeremy Chastain of Bowman Consulting Group described the property as two parcels north of Linton Road and south of the Caloosahatchee River, outlined proposed preservation areas, and presented the team’s requested deviations from Lee County Land Development Code (LDC) standards, including reduced perimeter setbacks to 10 feet in certain locations, a narrower right‑of‑way for the private internal road, a lower road crown elevation, and a narrower maintenance easement along the canal.
The project’s environmental consultant summarized mitigation and permitting work. "All of these impacts have been mitigated for through state and federal permitting, through the water management district and through the Army Corps of Engineers," the consultant said. She described proposed impacts as primarily to herbaceous wetlands, estimated about 750 square feet of mangrove trimming for alignment and roughly 141 linear feet of seawall at the marina basin, and said mitigation credits were purchased through a mitigation bank.
Project engineer Charlie Krebs described the stormwater approach: individual lots will drain to an internal roadway and then to a dedicated tract where runoff will be treated in a grass retention area and discharged via roadside swales to Litton Road and ultimately the Caloosahatchee River. "We have already been issued our South Florida water management permit for the site," Krebs said, and the team said dredging of the existing access channel is proposed to restore previously permitted depths.
County staff planner Cam Mohammed presented the staff analysis and recommended approval subject to conditions and the requested deviations. Staff recommended approval of several deviations (including the setback and crown elevation variances as amended) and advised conditions such as submission of compensatory flood‑storage calculations at the development‑order stage and limiting wet slips to accessory use, with a current maximum of 14 wet slips to be confirmed in compliance with the Lee County Manatee Protection Plan.
Multiple nearby residents urged denial or stricter conditions during public comment, focusing on recurring standing water in neighborhood swales, doubts about ongoing maintenance of drainage channels, concerns that reducing setbacks and allowing two‑story homes would erode privacy, and skepticism about whether proposed boat slips are feasible given shallow local depths. Alexander Brockmire, who lives in the adjacent Colusa Creek community, said the swale system already holds water during dry periods and warned of amplified flooding: "We're gonna be affecting hundreds of homes as a result of some of these deviations," he told the examiner.
An applicant attorney replied that the governing evidentiary standard is "competent substantial evidence" and said the panel had heard expert testimony on drainage, compatibility, and plan consistency that supports the application.
The hearing examiner closed the public hearing after rebuttal testimony. She said she will prepare a written recommendation and aims to issue it within about one to two weeks; the final decision by the Board of County Commissioners will follow the schedule the examiner indicated (generally two to four weeks after issuance of her recommendation). The transcript and exhibits will be uploaded to the case file and notice of the final board hearing will be sent to those who provided contact information.
What happens next: the hearing examiner will circulate a recommendation based on the record; any conditions and the precise language of approved deviations will be resolved in that recommendation and, if approved by the board, in the development‑order process.
Applicant planner Jeremy Chastain of Bowman Consulting Group described the property as two parcels north of Linton Road and south of the Caloosahatchee River, outlined proposed preservation areas, and presented the team’s requested deviations from Lee County Land Development Code (LDC) standards, including reduced perimeter setbacks to 10 feet in certain locations, a narrower right‑of‑way for the private internal road, a lower road crown elevation, and a narrower maintenance easement along the canal.
The project’s environmental consultant summarized mitigation and permitting work. "All of these impacts have been mitigated for through state and federal permitting, through the water management district and through the Army Corps of Engineers," the consultant said. She described proposed impacts as primarily to herbaceous wetlands, estimated about 750 square feet of mangrove trimming for alignment and roughly 141 linear feet of seawall at the marina basin, and said mitigation credits were purchased through a mitigation bank.
Project engineer Charlie Krebs described the stormwater approach: individual lots will drain to an internal roadway and then to a dedicated tract where runoff will be treated in a grass retention area and discharged via roadside swales to Litton Road and ultimately the Caloosahatchee River. "We have already been issued our South Florida water management permit for the site," Krebs said, and the team said dredging of the existing access channel is proposed to restore previously permitted depths.
County staff planner Cam Mohammed presented the staff analysis and recommended approval subject to conditions and the requested deviations. Staff recommended approval of several deviations (including the setback and crown elevation variances as amended) and advised conditions such as submission of compensatory flood‑storage calculations at the development‑order stage and limiting wet slips to accessory use, with a current maximum of 14 wet slips to be confirmed in compliance with the Lee County Manatee Protection Plan.
Multiple nearby residents urged denial or stricter conditions during public comment, focusing on recurring standing water in neighborhood swales, doubts about ongoing maintenance of drainage channels, concerns that reducing setbacks and allowing two‑story homes would erode privacy, and skepticism about whether proposed boat slips are feasible given shallow local depths. Alexander Brockmire, who lives in the adjacent Colusa Creek community, said the swale system already holds water during dry periods and warned of amplified flooding: "We're gonna be affecting hundreds of homes as a result of some of these deviations," he told the examiner.
An applicant attorney replied that the governing evidentiary standard is "competent substantial evidence" and said the panel had heard expert testimony on drainage, compatibility, and plan consistency that supports the application.
The hearing examiner closed the public hearing after rebuttal testimony. She said she will prepare a written recommendation and aims to issue it within about one to two weeks; the final decision by the Board of County Commissioners will follow the schedule the examiner indicated (generally two to four weeks after issuance of her recommendation). The transcript and exhibits will be uploaded to the case file and notice of the final board hearing will be sent to those who provided contact information.
What happens next: the hearing examiner will circulate a recommendation based on the record; any conditions and the precise language of approved deviations will be resolved in that recommendation and, if approved by the board, in the development‑order process.
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