NORTH FORT MYERS, Fla. – Neighbors in North Fort Myers are pushing back against a proposed county rezoning plan that would open the door for a construction project to build more than 300 mobile homes.
Equity Lifestyles Properties owns five “manufactured home” neighborhoods in Southwest Florida including Pine Lakes Country Club in North Fort Myers.
“We bought this lifestyle here at Pine Lakes and they’re trying to take our lifestyle away,” one neighbor said.
ELS is looking to build hundreds of new mobile homes on a plot of farmland connected to Pine Lakes.
“To me, the community that Equity Lifestyles Properties wants to put right next to our existing community here in Pine Lakes looks nothing like what’s existing here,” another neighbor said.
Neighbors said an even bigger concern is that the new neighborhood would be accessible by private roads through Pine Lakes. They’re also worried about having to share aging amenities (pools, tennis courts, golf courses etc.) with hundreds of new residents.
“All of our clubhouses and our tennis courts and our swimming pool — all of these things are full in prime season,” Ron Thoreson, leading the community charge against the proposal, said. “Just adding 360 homes and 700 more residents is just overcrowding on what we have here.”
County documents indicate staff members have recommended the project for approval. Dozens of concerned neighbors are expected to join Thoreson in voicing their concerns at a Lee County Zoning meeting Wednesday.
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