Treatment plant expansion
options due in Nov.
City may consider using $13.8 million riverfront
property it owns
The county should have options publicly available
for the Waterway Estates Treatment Plant by the end of November, officials said
Wednesday night at a North Fort Myers Civic Association meeting.
Nearly 110 people gathered at Community of Christ Church, where county Utilities
Director Douglas Meurer and Commissioner Tammy Hall fielded numerous questions
about the future of the treatment plant and a nearby 5.8-acre $13.8 million
riverfront property, where the county has considered a treatment center
expansion.
Some wondered why the county would pay so much for the property, which was being
planned for a marina, and now look at alternatives for its use.
“You’re putting a sewage plant in a residential neighborhood and you’re
going to destroy the neighborhood,” said Walter Booth, who has lived in
Waterway Estates for 18 years with his wife, Renee.
Hall said that is one option, but said her intent was to purchase waterfront
real estate for some kind of public use.
“No one in their right mind, in these times, would put a wastewater treatment
plant on the water,” Hall said.
Caloosa Isle Yacht Club, which sold the property to the county, had plans to
upgrade the North Fort Myers neighborhood with an $18-million marina, which was
to include a restaurant, tiki bar, boat maintenance facility, and a playground,
among other semiprivate amenities.
Hall said the county still could sell part of the property, which includes
active wet and dry slip permits, to a private business to develop.
The treatment plant could be expanded into the property, or moved in whole, in
part, or not at all, she said.
Hall said the original plan was to expand part of the plant into Caloosa Isle
Yacht Club’s property, next to its marina, before the company offered to sell
the entire property.
The county is discussing the expansion because the plant is at capacity in
Buttonwood Harbour and Waterway Estates, which are bordered to the west by Cape
Coral. Hancock Bridge Parkway is to the north and the Caloosahatchee is to the
east.
The county has hired Hazen and Sawyer, a Sarasota-based consultant, to review
the current site as well as other parcels in the neighborhood and provide a
financial analysis of each.
Hall said when the report comes out, she plans to have three town hall meetings
for the public to review the information.