A Charlotte County property owner is hoping to turn her 40-plus acre plot of land into commercial space thousands of residents along the Burnt Store Corridor can benefit from.
According to the Burnt Store Area Plan designed in the early 2000s, an analytics company did not forecast the need for a neighborhood commercial area until the 2035-2040 timeframe.
With thousands of residents already living along the corridor, they want commercial space now. Some say they are traveling at least 20-30 minutes round trip for groceries or urgent care.
"One of the concerns, unfortunately, is the fact that people are now using the fire station, which is only just up the street a few miles, as an urgent care center, which, of course, puts a burden on them that is unanticipated," Dr. Mary Ellen Kiss said, co-founder of the Burnt Store Corridor Coalition.
"I had a personal experience where it took me four and a half hours one day to find an urgent care for me to go to. I was driving around with 101-degree fever and sick. I was like, We need an urgent care here," Laura Fischer said.
Fischer bought the property a few years ago as an investment. She said she always knew she had no intention of building homes on the land, which sits at 17150 Burnt Store Road.
She is asking the county to rezone the plot to commercial general. In addition to an urgent care and grocery, there are a few smaller amenities Fischer could foresee.
"An ice cream shop would be cool, a little coffee shop, maybe something for fishing," she said. "I'm going to get input from the community and see what they want here."
"It'd be really nice to have something just around the corner," Mark Davis said.
He lives in Pirate Harbor.
"We all have to travel to get basic needs and amenities. We've had to drive all the way into Cape Coral, quite a ways into Cape Coral, in fact, just to get the urgent care. So it'd be nice to have something close by, groceries and other amenities typical to a normal neighborhood," Davis said.
The planning and zoning board approved the petition to be moved onto the next step: the board of county commissioners. They did, however, share some concerns. Officials noted traffic and noise concerns, as well as the already existing vacant lots designated as commercial use.
"However, there has been has been no interest at all [in developing that property] from anybody who owns any of that," Kiss said.
Davis added, "To deny this commercial property is, in my mind, ridiculous."
The board will hear the details and discuss the plan during their Sept. 10 meeting. If they approve the project, it's all steam ahead.
"Once the rezoning happens, we can start the whole process of site development and that type of thing," Kiss said. "This property, ironically, is really smack in the middle of the corridor from Jones Loop, which is up at 75, all the way down to Pine Island Road. [It's] equally accessible for a three-mile radius within both Lee County and in Charlotte County, for residents of Northwest Cape Coral, as well as residents of Punta Gorda."
One other concern county officials have is the long list of uses commercial general has that can't be limited. Fischer is hoping to curb that concern.
"I live here, I work here, and that would not be a good thing for me to turn this into something that I did not promise," Fischer said.