A Florida judge has thrown out the challenge to South Seas Resort’s rezoning, so Lee County’s approval still stands. Judge James Shenko, in Florida’s 20th Circuit Court, reviewed the petition and sided with the county. He decided that the Board of Commissioners based their rezoning decision on solid evidence, followed the correct legal steps, and gave the public a fair chance to participate.
Shenko didn’t ignore the worries coming from the Captiva community. He addressed them directly, writing, “Many of the petitioners and objectors prefer to keep Captiva Island the way it has always been. Yet neither the Lee Plan policies, the Code’s procedures, nor binding case law allow the undersigned (the judge) to block a rezoning application by nothing more than political plebiscite or an applause meter.”
This wasn’t the first time county approvals ended up in court. The Captiva Civic Association filed several lawsuits, trying to shut down the resort’s redevelopment plans. Those earlier efforts failed, and now this most recent attempt has met the same fate.
