Hearing for Eden Oak now postponed until next year
The hearing for the Eden Oak project’s rezoning request has once again been continued.
Originally scheduled for May 18, the Shell Point Boulevard developer behind the project was granted a continuance and the hearing was rescheduled for Sept. 25. Prior to commencing the case presentation, the involved parties agreed to again continue the hearing, according to documents from the Lee County Office of the Hearing Examiner.
The new hearing is set for April 23 at 9 a.m. at the Hearing Examiner’s Hearing Room.
Eden Oak is a 2016 rezoning request for 307 acres on Shell Point Boulevard between the Shell Point Retirement Community and the Palm Acres neighborhood. Eden Oak I, the applicant, seeks to construct 55 single-family homes on about 45 acres of land, rezoning the mangrove habitat from agricultural to residential. The LLC is registered to Romas Kartavicius of Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. According to his LinkedIn profile, Kartavicius is also president of Eden Oak, a home building firm that has been in business for more than 30 years in Toronto.
More than 100 people attended the May 18 hearing, but did not get the chance to speak publicly. A majority of them were Palm Acres residents and others in opposition to the project. Their public comment forms were collected for the public record, however. Representatives from the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation and Conservancy of Southwest Florida also attended the hearing.
The Hearing Examiner’s Hearing Room is on the Second Floor at 1500 Monroe St., Fort Myers.