Incorporation of Lehigh Acres, Florida https://www.change.org/p/incorporation-of-lehigh-acres-florida
The population of Lehigh Acres is now over 120,000 and it is time to control our own destiny. With this many people, we need to be able to manage our own budget and use our money locally as we see fit.
By having control over the budget we can then set the level of services that we wish to receive. We can also work to control the future growth of our community and manage it properly. By doing this we can work towards an improved quality of life for us all.
With so many people moving to Southwest Florida now is the time to act on this. We have to take control of our own future and be able to manage our community for ourselves for our future generations.
A petition has been filed to incorporate Lehigh Acres.
Currently, Lehigh Acres is considered an unincorporated area of Lee County. Unite Lehigh is wanting to change that.
“Because Lehigh is unincorporated, Lee County does most functions,” stated David Lindsay, the district manager for Lehigh Acres Municipal. “They do the roads, they do the major parks — you know they, they do pretty much everything.”
Because the county has so much control, they also dictate where the tax dollars go from residents of Lehigh Acres.
Unite Lehigh wants those tax dollars to stay local and improve services that Lehigh Acres currently lacks.
“Right now everyone has to drive a half hour at least each way to go to Fort Myers, to go to dinner and I didn’t connect a decent restaurant drive to Fort Myers,” said Derek Felder, the president of Unite Lehigh.
Felder said the inconvenient drive to get to things to do isn’t the only reason they started this petition.
“Lack of police presence, lack of infrastructure, lack of road maintenance, lack of many of the different issues that that Lehigh has,” said Felder.
Lehigh Acres has tried to incorporate twice before, but the measure did not pass in a referendum to voters in the past.
If you would like to sign the petition you can do so here.