Project Location: Bonita Springs, FL
As the first subdivision to be reviewed by the newly incorporated City of Bonita Springs, this 616-acre property, once annexed by Lee County, has been successfully transformed into the exclusive 1,990-unit master planned community of Village Walk. RWA’s planning, engineering and surveying professionals provided the right interdisciplinary solution to complete the project within budget and ahead of schedule.
The primary project challenge involved the preparation of planning reports to support the annexation from Lee County into the City of Bonita Springs. RWA’s Planning team also needed to draft amendments to the City’s Growth Management Plan to designate properly the property within the city’s future land use element and map. The final planning hurdle entailed securing zoning entitlements for the re-zoning of the property as a residential planned unit development (RPD).
To streamline the permitting approval process, RWA engaged its Visualization Services team to generate high-quality color exhibits of the community design concepts in hopes of casting a clearer picture of the project issues when planners presented to the various regulatory agencies. Incorporating images from photographs of comparable design features used in a highly successful Naples, Florida development project, the Visualization Team produced computer generated exhibits that illustrated the overall site plan and proposed town center. The exhibits told a story with every picture, effectively educating the viewer on the look of the conceptual plan at build out and giving citizens an understanding of how the plan related to the community. After successfully re-zoning the property, sales exhibits were created to accurately depict the final project design.
RWA Engineers conducted a comprehensive feasibility study of the project site to determine the most economically sound design solution and then set the construction schedule accordingly. Using the Community Development District provisions of state law, RWA helped create a CDD to facilitate infrastructure development. RWA prepared a utilities master plan to provide for the design and permitting of the subdivision infrastructure. In addition to preparing construction documents for the site, engineering design off-site work included improvements to the infrastructure of Loop Road.
Permits were prepared for the Southwest Florida Water Management District, the Department of Environmental Protection, and the Florida Department of Transportation. Despite the complicated planning and permitting matters associated with the regulatory process from annexation, through rezoning and permitting, this project was delivered within budget and ahead of schedule.