Developer Seeks OK for 2,769-Acre Mixed-Use Plan

The development, south of Lehigh Acres and northeast of Southwest Florida International Airport, will include 600,000 sf of retail space, 300,000 sf of office space and a 1.5-million research and flex-space district. The district will include research, warehouse and distribution facilities to support the airport. An 18-hole golf course designed to meet Audubon International Signature Sanctuary Course design standards is planned adjacent to a proposed 350-room hotel and conference center. The development company is in negotiations to donate up to 250 acres of the southeastern portion of the site for a sports complex to house swimming, tennis and volleyball facilities.

The Fountains 4,215 residential units will range from single-family homes to condominiums and apartments for residents of varying income levels. The project is scheduled to be built in two phases from 2007 to 2016. Development on the site will be concentrated in the northern portion near existing roads and infrastructure. More than 1,300 acres, including 1,100 acres of wetlands, will be preserved as managed as open conservation areas.

SouthStar managing director Kimball Woodbury tells GlobeSt.com that the development incorporates a New Urbanist philosophy. "The New Urbanist approach allows us to cluster the development and create more of an urban environment using only 25% of the land a conventional development would use," Woodbury says.

The development's Town Center, situated at the crossroads of State Road 82 and Daniels Parkway, will serve the new community and adjoining Lehigh Acres with a variety of services, including a library, fire and sheriff's department, two schools, post office, three public parks and an entertainment district. The property on which the Fountains will be built is part of a 90,000-acre tract that was designated by the county as a Density Reduction-Groundwater Resource area in the mid-1980s. Recent studies show, however, that the project site does not recharge on-site aquifers efficiently enough to merit the designation.