Council gives its OK to Judd Creek project

By DON RUANE

The News Press, Tuesday Oct 18, 2005

Developer Will Stout received approval Monday for his 192-acre Judd Creek multi-family development on the border of Cape Coral and North Fort Myers.

Members of the Cape Coral City Council voted unanimously for the 1,100-housing-unit project, which will be built on the east side of Barrett Road and south side of Pine Island Road.

Stout and his Realmark Group companies already are developing the upscale Cape Harbour complex along the Caloosahatchee River and the Entrada project on Del Prado Boulevard northeast of Kismet Parkway. He is responsible for the gateway arch stretching across Del Prado Boulevard just west of U.S. 41.

Just two property owners asked the council to protect their neighborhood on Herron Lane, a narrow road without sidewalks that runs down the east side of the project.

The residents asked for a better buffer than the planned 10-foot fence and for traffic from the development to be routed to Barrett Road instead of Hamlet Road and Evergreen Road, which provides a route to U.S. 41.

"This traffic only affects North Fort Myers. This little residential neighborhood been there some 40 years," Greg Erwin said.

Hamlin Lane resident R.P. Whitaker added, "We have a lot of children in the neighborhood."

The council didn't discuss either issue.

The development order approved by the council gives Stout five years to complete the project instead of the seven he asked for during the meeting.

City transportation planner Perseides Zambrano said adding two years to the project throws off the city's ability to estimate the traffic impact of the project. The traffic impact study was based on assumptions about traffic over the next five years, and they might be off, Zambrano said. It might be necessary to ask the developer to help pay for additional improvements to cope with traffic, she said.

"Seven years from now staff cannot assure you everything will be OK," Zambrano said.

"I'm for the five years. I can't see going any further than that," Councilman Tim Day said.

But tying development time to the traffic study is flawed thinking, Stout said.