From Vice President, Rhonda Olson and Director, Joseph Bokar:
The LGPOA Board would like to share our recent findings regarding the Placida West Boat Ramp Expansion. A link to the project can be found below for your review. We feel it’s very important to educate and lobby for a commercial boat landing to be included in this project.
We believe that this project is of extreme importance to LGI property owners, homeowners, and even, visitors. Currently, our way of life on this island is dependent upon a private enterprise, namely Eldred’s marina. As such there is risk to island access for building and maintenance supplies, parking and transportation. As such, there is a risk to property values if we were to lose this private access; therefore, a public solution is of paramount importance!
As this is a publicly funded proposal, all Charlotte County property owners, rightfully, were surveyed for input about the project. We hope, but do not have any way of knowing, that some LGI residents participated in the survey. The LGPOA feels that islanders need to emphasize the importance of key details of this project due to the degree that we will be uniquely impacted as a bridgeless barrier island community.
Tina Powell, manager of Parks and National Resources, confirmed that just over 100 people responded in all of Charlotte County. She told the LGPOA, “Unfortunately the site was unable to accommodate a barge landing. Based on public input, our design engineers evaluated the site for a barge landing and it was not recommended for this particular location.” From what we can see, there was support for the barge landing, albeit, less than the majority. We have included the link to the survey results below for your review.
Lee County has a public/private partnership in place, which sells commercial access to interested entities. Please find the link below.
Recently, two parcels have been purchased for the expansion and two more are being considered. The Placida West Boat Ramp Expansion presentation to Commissioners is scheduled for April 12th but it’s presentation only, no public comments will be allowed.
We will be contacting the Charlotte County Commissioners previous to the April 12th meeting, but we need your support to take with us. Our goal is 100 signatures of support by April 8th to include a commercial landing in the Placida West Boat Ramp Expansion. Please email your name, address and reasons for your support of the project to twrhonda@gmail.com. Members and non-members are encouraged to participate.
We will keep you updated with all information and results as received.
Link to the current Placida West Boat Ramp Expansion project:
https://www.charlottecountyfl.gov/projects/placida-west-boat-ramp-expansion.stml
Charlotte county survey results regarding the Placida West Boat Ramp Expansion:
https://lgpoa.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/BoatRampSurvey-Results_201022.pdf
The following is a link to the public/private use commercial landing in Lee County as an example:
https://www.leegov.com/parks/Pages/FacilitySP.aspx?UrlSuffix=pineislandmarina
