March Madness is upon us again! To me it is the most enjoyable time of college athletic seasons and not just because our football team did not qualify for even any of the “participation ribbon” bowls! Hope your (and my team) do well in the tournament and the betting pools!
Recent Master Board meetings have centered on discussions of issues and plans for the year. Peter Dersley, our Infrastructure Director, discussed the broken gate at the maintenance exit. An Amazon delivery driver decided to enter through the exit gate after a car left. The gate closed (as designed) on the truck and broke the gate. Subsequently, another Amazon driver was frustrated by the gate and dropped its Grandezza packages on the ground on the other side of the gate. These problems were photographed by our access control system. We are attempting to contact Amazon for reimbursement. The instructions for drivers are clearly described on the signs at the gate. Apparently, the driver schedules do not allow time to go to the main gate, or something. Peter had the new gate installed and operational by the middle of February.
Now for some current news around SWFL.
Our Lee County Sheriff has been in the news lately. He is being investigated by the FBI for unspecified financial problems. An interesting item in his annual state disclosures is that in the 3 years 2019-2021, in the aggregate, he reported over $400K in gambling income. While this is a gross income amount, it also implies that he must be luckier than most gamblers.
The Florida legislature is meeting in Tallahassee for its annual 2-month session. In March it can propose new laws, etc. up to March 31 and must act on them by April 30. The Governor has until July to sign, veto or allow them to become law without his action. For a state as large as Florida it is a very efficient timeline. I suspect that the tradition probably originated when travel was very difficult and the down state legislators had a very long horseback trip to Tallahassee. The principal problem with the legislative system is that the restrictions do not provide enough time for discussion of complex bills. This leads to “cleanup bills” the following year. We are not aware of any proposed major laws this year that impact Grandezza, but it appears there may have to be some changes for the Condo reserve laws that were approved 2 years ago. Those laws basically only impact condo buildings of 3 stories or more, so Grandezza homes are not covered.
What is that noise on the northside of Grandezza? Miromar is clearing land at the southern end of its property for infrastructure such as residential streets and underground utility lines. That land is in Lee County (not Estero) and so far, the County has not approved any specific plans for structures on the land. Several years ago, the Grandezza Master Board and our residents met with the county when the Miromar development site plans were presented to the county. While the discussion was centered on the commercial improvements for the small retail site, the further improvements were discussed too. There were no specific proposals for the current developments, but we negotiated restrictions on the height of any improvements near the Grandezza border. At that time, the concern was further student dorms near our border and noise from the shopping/restaurant center. At the present time it appears that Miromar is planning single family homes adjacent to Grandezza but we will keep watch. It is fortunate that we have a high-quality developer on our border.
If you are considering moving to Port Royale (Naples) there is good news. The price of a large site on the “Gulf of America” has been reduced from $295MM to $210MM. Of course, you will have to find your own yacht dockage since they removed the “yacht basin” from the listing.
Enjoy your Florida winter and be safe. Do not become a statistic by adding to the Lee County total 14,000 accidents with 125 fatalities in 2024.
