Corkscrew residents face growth - Mining operations create stir along road

News-Press article by DENES HUSTY III -  Originally posted on August 20, 2006

Karen Newberry said all she and her husband Jay want is to be left alone on their 10 acres on Corkscrew Road East and raise their five children in their six-bedroom house.

"I want to preserve our quality of life, I want a peaceful place where I can raise my kids," said Newberry, mother of three sons and two daughters ages 4 to 17.

People like Jay and Karen Newberry who live along eastern Corkscrew Road are now considering banding together to draft a plan, with the help of Lee County officials, to guide the future growth of their rural area.

They said they like their rustic setting of pine trees, wetlands, citrus groves and vegetable farms, where people of like minds who shun the coastal, urban life can raise chickens, goats, horses and other farm animals as well as children in an area where occasional visitors include wandering Florida panthers and other wildlife.

However, the winds of change are blowing in the direction of the serene rural area on Corkscrew Road east of large gated residential and golf course communities.

Rock and fill mining and other potential heavy-industrial operations — such as asphalt and concrete plants — threaten as unwanted neighbors, Corkscrew residents said.

There are three proposed new mines — with up to 10 years of blasting and excavation followed by construction of small subdivisions — along the north side of Corkscrew Road with applications pending with the county. Another rock-mining business is suing the county for $18 million over anti-blasting rules adopted in 2002.

As far as concern for the area goes, "we are part and parcel of that neighborhood too," said Richard Friday, chief financial officer of Youngquist Brothers, a local firm proposing a six-year fill-dirt mining operation on 1,400-acres it owns across from Six L's Farm Road on the north side of Corkscrew Road.

One of the company's owners and several employees live in the neighborhood, Friday said.

He said the company has tried to address resident concerns, including opting for a fill-dirt mining operation without blasting instead of a rock-mining operation with blasting.

As for the long-term future of the area, "that's a big question," Friday said.

But there are some visionaries who paint this picture of the area's future: homes and neighborhood stores concentrated in several small villages in development islands surrounded by a sea of undeveloped green space to protect natural drinking water supplies, wetlands and wildlife.

Just what the future landscape will look like in 10 to 20 years, experts say, is uncertain, but one thing is for sure: Development will inexorably move eastward as the coastal area reaches development capacity and more people move to Southwest Florida to find their place in the sun.

More than 300 families now live along the eastern half of Corkscrew Road — a 10-mile stretch from just past the Bella Terra residential and golf course community to the Lee/Collier line — and seem resigned to the fact that more development is headed their way.

"Has anyone ever stopped growth?" said Bill Lytell, an area resident and pastor of Gospel Baptist Church in Bonita Springs.

But they can help to direct development to preserve their way of life, said area resident Kevin Hill.

That's why he, Lytell, the Newberrys and more than 50 of their neighbors gathered last week at the South Lee County Regional Library in Estero to discuss drafting a development plan for their rural area.

The reason for the meeting, Hill insisted, was not to dwell on their opposition to mining.

"It's about planning for the future of our community," he said.

Still, Hill conceded, if he and his neighbors had drawn up a development plan for their community a few years back, they would be better able to fend off mining interests today.

To try and preserve as much of their rural community as possible, Hill and other Corkscrew Road East residents are thinking of joining forces with their neighbors to the west who a few years ago formed the Estero Community Planning Panel.

In that effort, community leaders hired professional planners and partnered with county officials to draw up a growth plan for the coastal area of Estero, said committee chairman Neal Noethlich.

The effort, he said, required a two-to-three-year commitment by citizens and hired professionals to formulate a plan adopted by county and state officials, Noethlich said.

Since the Estero Planning Panel has done much of the groundwork, it might be best for the Corkscrew Road East residents to piggyback on their plan, Lytell said.

The reason: "There is power in unity. We'd swing a bigger stick," he said.

The Estero panel does pack clout. A subcommittee forced the Best Buy chain recently to change the color scheme for a sign on its new store in the new Coconut Point mall.

The Corkscrew east residents could craft their own requirements to supplement the Estero plan, Lytell said.

"I would predict that we will join hands with the Estero Planning Community while developing our own vision," he said.

While partnering with the Estero panel might save some time, it would take more than a year because it is too late to try and get a plan together for consideration this year, county planners said.

If the partnership doesn't pan out, east Estero residents could create their own plan, planners said.

The vision Corkscrew east residents have for their community includes preserving the area's peace and quiet, wildlife and natural resources, and farming nature with low-density development while having more government services from fire protection to mosquito control to parks and playgrounds to road improvements.

Corkscrew east residents will probably meet again in a month or so to discuss the issue and to see whether the Estero panel is interested in inviting them to add on to their plan, Lytell said.

Lee County commissioners said they welcome citizen participation in their community.

They generally agree that some changes should be made regarding future development in the area.

Commissioner Ray Judah, who represents the area, said he believes that development regulations can be modified on land known as the Density Reduction/Groundwater Resource Area (DR/GR), which encompasses much of the Corkscrew community and where the county gets some of its drinking water.

The current standard allows only agriculture, mining and one home for every 10 acres.

Incentives need to be offered to large land owners to steer them away from mining to residential development, Judah said. Clustering homes in certain areas where the land has been altered and is not as desirable for environmental preservation should be allowed, he said.

These villages would be self-contained with stores and recreational amenities, Judah said.

In exchange for being allowed to build more homes in a certain area, developers would have to buy other land and give it to the county for preservation, Judah said. He said this approach would help the county out of its dilemma of not having enough money in conservation programs to buy all the land that should be protected.

Thus, in between the villages would be large amounts of open space to protect wildlife and restore the historic flow of rain water across the landscape during the summer rainy season, the commissioner said.

While the possibility of mining wouldn't be eliminated altogether, more of the land would be developed for residential purposes, Judah said.

Commissioner John Albion said he agrees the county should consider allowing more concentrated residential and supporting commercial development with large areas of open space in between, including farms.

"The village concept is a fabulous idea. It allows the creatures to have plenty of room," Lytell said.

Friday said that Youngquist Brothers proposes a development along these lines after its fill-dirt mining operation ceases.

There are plans to sell 135 1-to-2-acre lots around a 600-to-700-acre lake, he said.

Discussions on development regulations in the area may happen within a few months, as soon as a consultant summarizes information from 19 studies to determine what impact a proposed Interstate 75 interchange at Coconut Road in Estero might have on the DR/GR region.

Commissioner Tammy Hall said that after summary is completed, all landowners — farmers, residents and mining interests — should be gathered together to come up with a plan for the future development of the area to determine where residential development and mining are appropriate.

"Everybody needs to work at the same table," she said.

"We're more than willing to try and resolve this," said Sheila Handley, office manager for Westwind-Corkscrew Mining LLC, which is proposing 318 acres of fill-dirt mining.

Friday said his company is also agreeable to this plan.

"We've always taken the neighborhood approach, going out and sitting down with the residents and letting them know what's going on," Friday said.

The company has already limited hours of operation for their proposed fill-dirt mine on Corkscrew Road, Friday said, and moved the entrance and buildings to lessen truck traffic and reduce the impact to the neighborhood.

Changing the development regulations in the area, he said, is a tricky balancing act.

The reality is that the Corkscrew Road area — along with Miami and Brooksville — are the only three locations in Florida with prime limestone deposits needed for construction, Friday said.

Shutting down rock mining altogether here would drive up prices for limestone quarried outside of Lee County, he said.

Friday said he agrees that there would have to be economic incentives offered to compensate for not being able to mine.

"We're open to any proposal that makes sense, but you have to be careful, " Friday said.

But Judah foresees an alarming scenario unless a viable solution is found: "There will be mining quarries along the entire length of Corkscrew Road."

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