Wetland or fire station? City of Fort Myers proposes to change Six Mile Cypress slough area land use

A new fire station might one day rise from a wetland where bromeliads cling to towering cypress as pileated woodpeckers drum on slash pines.

Within the Six Mile Cypress Slough watershed, and across from the popular county preserve that bears its name, the city of Fort Myers owns about six empty acres split into two parcels.

The site is on the west side of Six Mile Cypress/Ben C. Pratt Parkway, north of Penzance Road and south of Heritage Palms.

One piece's land-use classification is agriculture; the other is wetland/urban.

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That could change as a result of Monday's Fort Myers City Council meeting.

Tucked deep into a 1,097-page agenda packet (fun fact: "War and Peace" is only 128 more pages) released less than two business days before Monday's meeting, is the notice of the city's intention to change the land use to neighborhood commercial and traditional community, respectively. It wants to build its seventh fire station on the heavily wooded site.

To be clear, the preserve itself is not in jeopardy. But the land the city wants to use to build on is within the slough's watershed, and home to many native wetland plant species.

Though spokeswoman Stephanie Schaffer confirmed the city's plan, she did not answer questions Friday about how and why the city arrived at the decision to use that particular site.

Councilwoman Gaile Anthony, whose Ward 6 holds the property, did not return several calls to her office and cell phone.

Because the project would result in the destruction of wetlands, the city would be required to spend more than $160,000 to buy watershed credits from Corkscrew Regional Mitigation Bank.

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That's on top of current costs, said Fort Myers resident Connie Martin, which is why she's puzzled the city would choose to build there.

"It simply doesn't make sense that they don't use the available properties south of Daniels and Six Mile (Cypress Parkway)," she said.

Planner James Beever, who works at the Southwest Florida Regional Planning Council, knows the area well. He was one of the original members of the celebrated Monday Group, a group of high-schoolers who in 1976 successfully organized the purchase of the slough preserve property.

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Beever points out that the property in question is part of the slough buffer, "but it was never purchased for conservation or set aside as such by the city of Fort Myers, which was not a participant in the Six Mile Cypress Slough Preserve."

Although he thinks the best outcome would be for the property to be added to the preserve, he's realistic about the chances of that happening.

"That is unlikely unless it is purchased to be so," he said.

If you go

The Fort Myers CIty Council meeting starts at 4:30 p.m. Monday at City Hall, 2200 Second St., Fort Myers. Call 321-7000. The agenda overview is online here: https://www.cityftmyers.com/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/1305?html=true