Panel continues discussion of land development code
At the November meeting of the Captiva Community Panel, representatives from Morris-Depew Associates, Inc. presented information regarding sections in the land development code pertaining to mangrove protection, water quality and height restrictions.
Panel member Mike Kelly informed the panel that two weeks ago, a workshop session regarding mangrove protection and water quality sections of the land development code.
Instead of property owners removing mangroves from their property and simply paying a fine, Kelly proposed to the panel a much more serious punishment.
“We’re going to suggest that if local mangrove destruction is conclusively documented on a property, then no county licenses or permits will be issued unless the destroyed mangroves have been restored to the site from which they have been removed,” Kelly said.
Regarding water quality, Kelly said that the workshop session generated the idea for requiring stricter inspections and review of septic systems particularly when properties change hands.
“We’re trying to just tighten up the septic system review piece of that part of the code,” Kelly said.
Dave Depew of Morris-Depew Associates also gave a short presentation about onsite sewage treatment and disposal systems and mentioned new types of technology, especially in regards to reducing wastewater generation.
After the water quality and mangrove discussion, the panel moved on to the height restriction section of the land development code.
“We wanted to talk to you about some of the background of the height restrictions and some of the concepts we’re going to be talking about. We want to get the broadest dissemination possible of this because this is absolutely going to be one of the most controversial things that we’re going to discuss,” Depew said.
Depew’s co-worker, Max Forgey, gave the presentation.
“At your last meeting, you asked us to come back with some graphics about height and architectural features related to height,” Forgey said.
Forgey went through a PowerPoint presentation describing definitions that he and Depew have added to the draft ordinance.
“We have added a few terms that I suspect are familiar to most of you. We found this to be quite a challenge writing definitions for Captiva because some types of architecture you’ll find everywhere else don’t happen here and some things that happen here, don’t happen other places,” Forgey said.
Forgey went on to list and show examples of terms such as “roofline articulation,” “cupola,” “dormer,” and “facade articulation.”
Depew went on to say that he and Forgey would be attending the special height restriction workshop session with more examples and suggestions for height restrictions and acceptable variance criteria.
There will be a special workshop session for the height restriction portion of the land development code on Tuesday, Dec. 1 at 9 a.m. in the Alphabet Cone room at South Seas Island Resort, 5400 Plantation Road.
The panel will hold their regular meeting at ‘Tween Waters Inn, 15951 Captiva Drive, on Tuesday, Dec. 8 at 9 a.m.