Planning board recommends rezoning for Metro Parkway site proposed for Costco, citing traffic review underway

Planning Board members voted 5–1 on March 5 to recommend Fort Myers City Council approve a request to rezone 36.74 acres at 10451 Metro Parkway from a mix of planned unit development, commercial intensive and mixed-use zoning to Commercial General, a change the applicant says is needed to accommodate a proposed Costco warehouse and related outparcels.

The applicant, attorney Brad Wester, said the request would expand an existing 20-acre swath of Commercial General frontage and let the site be developed as a single, unified commercial parcel. “We are asking for a conventional rezone to CG,” Wester said in the board hearing. Planning staff recommended approval, finding the rezoning consistent with the city’s comprehensive plan and land development code.

The request matters to residents because the applicant’s presentation and public comments centered on vehicle trips, intersection queuing and pedestrian crossings near Metro Parkway and Colonial Boulevard. City staff and the applicant said a traffic impact study (TIS) submitted Feb. 25 is under active review by the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT), Lee County and the City of Fort Myers; the applicant said the TIS models build-out and proposes signal, turn-lane and other roadway mitigations.

What the board heard - Applicant presentation: Brad Wester said the total site acreage is about 56.95 acres including areas the applicant…