Lee County hearing examiner hears rezoning request to expand DSAM Plaza in Lehigh Acres

LEE COUNTY — The Lee County hearing examiner on April 29 heard testimony on DCI202500013, a request by DSAM Enterprises LLC to rezone about 3.9 acres and expand the DSAM Plaza commercial plan development to add roughly 14,873 square feet of nonresidential floor area — bringing the center to about 40,000 square feet — while keeping a maximum building height of 35 feet.

The applicant’s planner, Stacy Ellis Hewitt of RBI Planning and Landscape Architecture, told the examiner that the proposal adds an access point on 5th Street West, relocates stormwater to the southeast portion of the site and updates the master concept plan to reflect earlier administrative amendments and current mixed-use overlay standards. “We respectfully request recommendation of approval,” Hewitt said, incorporating the applicant’s 48-hour notice and attachments into her testimony.

Why it matters: County staff, represented by principal planner Beth Workman, recommended approval with conditions and several deviations from Lee County land development standards. Staff concluded the site is in the central urban future land-use category and the mixed-use overlay, that urban services (water, sewer, fire) are available, and that the proposed changes qualify as incentivized infill consistent with the Lee plan.

Staff and the applicant described several deviations needed because of existing built conditions and right-of-way constraints. Those include relief from driveway separation and certain collector/arterial cross-section requirements on Lee Boulevard and permission to leave 5th Street West largely in its current, narrower configuration. The applicant said Lee County Department of Transportation prioritized a right-turn lane on Lee Boulevard and that the project team redesigned the plan to accommodate that need.

Residents who live adjacent to the shopping center urged caution. Sherry Dula, who said she lives next to the property’s utility easement, told the hearing that 5th Street West is narrow and that delivery trucks already force vehicles and pedestrians to pull into easements to pass. “We have students who walk to school … It’s very dangerous when you have delivery vehicles coming down the road,” Dula said, citing pedestrian safety and noise concerns.

Alan Spratt, who lives directly behind the building, presented photographs showing missing parking-lot fixtures, overgrown hedges, accumulated trash near a swale and frequent delivery truck parking that he said occurs adjacent to his home. “If they’re going to extend things, that’s all I got,” Spratt said, urging preservation or repair of a buffering wall that currently separates the center from homes.

Applicant and staff responses: The project’s engineers said stormwater design will comply with the South Florida Water Management District and the county code and that the proposed planted dry retention area will meet current water-quality objectives. Traffic consultant Ted Trish said the traffic analysis, using a 2028 buildout, shows Lee Boulevard and Gunnery Road would operate at acceptable levels with the expansion and that adding a right-turn lane on Lee Boulevard will improve safety and operations. Rachel Tracy of Atwell said the project will extend an existing sidewalk along 5th Street West to improve pedestrian connectivity.

To address neighbors’ truck and circulation concerns, staff proposed and the applicant agreed to condition language requiring development-order plans to depict signage at 5th Street West access points that reads prohibiting commercial trucks from entering or exiting there; the team also proposed clarifications that would require removal of any portion of the wall parallel to 5th Street West if that portion is removed, to ensure consistent buffering along the roadway, and permit buffer plantings within a cross-access easement where residential lots abut the easement.

What was not decided: The hearing examiner closed the evidentiary record and said she had sufficient information to prepare a written recommendation to the Board of County Commissioners; the board will set a public hearing where speakers will have a three-minute limit. No final action by the board was taken at this hearing.

Next steps: The hearing examiner will issue a written recommendation that will be provided to the applicant and to those who submitted public-comment cards; the item will later be scheduled for a Board of County Commissioners hearing where members of the public may testify under the board’s time limits.

Speakers quoted in this article are identified in the hearing record.