Wal-Mart was left with no place to park its cars, as an appeal filed by Wal-Mart in Estero, Florida was denied yesterday by a Lee County, Florida Hearing Examiner. Wal-Mart Stores East, LP, one of many Wal-Mart subsidiary companies, is trying to build a 208,000 s.f. supercenter off Coconut Road in Estero. The company has been seeking zoning approval to convert 3 parcels of land designated for smaller businesses, into parking lots to create enough room to handle the cars required by the county zoning code. According to The Naples News, Wal-Mart now must either go to court to reverse the denial, or start another zoning process again from scratch, which could take more than a year. “We want to sit back and look at everything before making a decision,” a Wal-Mart spokesman told the newspaper. The Hearing Officer said that changing the outparcels into parking was inconsistent with the zoning for the land that was approved in 1998. “A visual comparison of the proposed site plan and the approved Master Concept Plan clearly demonstrates there are significant differences between the two plans,” the decision states. The store on Coconut Road is one of two supercenters Wal-Mart wanted to build in Estero, angering many residents, who felt two stores were two too many. Lee County’s director of Community Development, told the newspaper that the county was pleased with the hearing examiner’s decision, which rejected Wal-Mart’s argument that the real issue was the legality of using outparcels as parking.
The Wal-Mart proposal is simply incompatible with the Master Plan for the land in question. Lee County officials said that, and now a Hearing Officer has affirmed it. Residents should always compare big box proposals to how the land is described — not just in the zoning code — but in the Comprehensive Land Use Plan as well. For earlier stories on this community, search this database by “Estero.”
