MEMORANDUM

TO: Fort Myers Beach Town Council

FROM: Bill Spikowski

DATE: May 18, 1998

SUBJECT: COMPREHENSIVE PLAN DENSITY ISSUES

On April 21, the LPA added a new Policy 4-C-5 that specifies how densities (in dwellings units per acre) would be computed in your new comprehensive plan. This method of computing densities is much more explicit than Lee County's plan, allowing a careful analysis of its practical effects.

Since that time, I have been experimenting with the effects of this methodology on existing subdivisions. I still believe that the method is sound, but some additional changes are probably warranted. Without changes, lot owners in several older sub-divisions that are zoned for duplexes may not have a chance to build a second unit.

To provide some relief, an important change would be a new clause in Policy 4-C-5 that would let fractional densities on small lots be "rounded up" (in subdivisions that allow duplexes), using the following underlined wording:

POLICY 4-C-5 DENSITY: This plan establishes density levels as the maximum number of residential dwelling units allowed per acre of land (DU/acre). This acreage includes all residential land plus land within the development to be used for street and utility rights-of-way, recreation and open space, water management, and existing lakes that are entirely contained within the residential development.  Commercial and other non-residential uses shall not be included. When computing densities on existing subdivisions where lots are smaller than 15,000 square feet, one-half the width of adjoining streets and canals may be included in the acreage, and computed densities greater than 1.50 DU/acre may be rounded up to two dwelling units where multiple dwelling are permitted.

The wording above would provide relief to some duplex subdivisions with larger lots, but several additional changes to the Future Land Use Map should also be made. A preliminary density analysis (see matrix on the following page) has identified the following changes: