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<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n\u201cThe Lee Board of County Commissioners is working diligently on behalf of residents and visitors, including those in east Lee County, planning projects for quality of life and also for future growth,\u201d<\/em> Lee County Government spokesperson Betsy Clayton said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to the Lee County Economic Development Office they are committed to economic development in Lehigh Acres, particularly focusing on small business development. The office said Lehigh Acres is one of the fastest growing communities in Lee County as indicated by the recent surge of new grocery stores including Fresco y Mas, Bravo and Key Foods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The county said that since the pandemic more than 900 businesses have applied for a Business Tax Receipt to start a business in Lehigh, joining 3,857 businesses already there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A state-of-the-art ambulatory medical facility, Family Health Centers, was among one of them opening on Lee Boulevard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In addition to businesses, infrastructure has been a large addition to Lehigh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the many projects includes Lee County designing the extension of Alico Road, which will connect Alico Road and SR 82 to provide a north-south corridor for travel. According to Lee County government documents the extension will be part of an overall solution to improve transportation, while also providing an alternate hurricane evacuation route.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The new roadway includes three phases, according to Lee County government documents:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2013 Phase 1 will include a portion of existing Alico Road from Airport Haul Road to the intersection of Green Meadow Road. This phase will reconstruct the road to a four-lane, with an ultimate six-lane, roadway including reconstruction of the Green Meadow Road intersection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2013 Phase 2 will take the proposed new corridor from the Green Meadow Road intersection to just south of the proposed connection point at the SR 82\/Sunshine Boulevard intersection. This also includes an ultimate six-lane roadway, with a proposed four-lane roadway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2013 Phase 3 will have intersection improvements at SR 82, as well as widening\/reconstruction of Sunshine Boulevard up to and including the intersection of 40th Street SW and Sunshine Boulevard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another project includes an expansion to Lehigh Acres Park with an estimated completion date of fiscal year 2022-2023. The project includes three football\/soccer fields; paved parking areas; concessions, locker rooms and restrooms, playground, fishing pier, pickleball courts, disc golf course, trails and shade structures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Able Canal will also receive a 6-mile long 12-foot wide shared use pathway and related amenities on the northern side, expected to be completed by fiscal year 2024-2025. An interlocal agreement between the Lee County Board of County Commissioners and the Lehigh Acres Municipal Services Improvement District approved in April for the county to develop, operate and maintain the linear park along the canal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The path will tie into Lehigh Community Park off Williams Road, also undergoing a designing expansion. The shared-use pathway of the linear park will have connections to Harns Marsh, Lehigh Acres Park\/Barbara Farrell Park, Lehigh Elementary School and Lehigh Acres Trailhead Park.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Other projects include exterior shade structures to both Riverdale Library and East County Regional Library. Riverdale Library will also receive upgraded mechanical systems and an improved parking lot, both with an estimated completion date of the summer of 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Restoration will also take place at Bob Janes Preserve, the largest Conservation 20\/20 preserve in Alva with 5,620 acres. The restoration, which has an estimated completion date of fiscal year 2022-2023 includes water quality and conservation, hydrologic\/ecosystem restoration, installing berms and control structure and TMDL credit for Caloosahatchee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another Alva preserve to receive improvements is Telegraph Creek Property with a parking area, paddle craft launch and fishing\/observation platform with an estimated completion date of fiscal year 2022-2023. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In August of this year the Lee Board of County Commissioners voted for a new park-and-ride facility for the rising demand for LeeTran transit services in Lehigh. The facility will be located at Williams Avenue and Village Lakes Boulevard and provide up to four bus bays, shelters with benches, restrooms and parking spaces. It will also have a paved bus circulation with loading and unloading ramps, custodial facilities, technology room and Mobility on Demand drop-off service providing riders with innovative real-time transit information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to the county, the bus ridership has grown approximately 30 percent since 2010.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The School District of Lee County also is trying to keep up with the growth in the East Zone with many projects completed and many more to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen you look at where the plans are, the only place we are building new schools is in the East Zone. we have some rebuilds, renovations, additions but all of the new schools are in the East Zone,\u201d<\/em> District spokesperson Rob Spicker said. \u201cAfter we came out of the housing crisis and recession it all switched to Lehigh, that\u2019s where the population and student population is booming. We have the funding and that is where we are catching up.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The 10 year plan includes The Innovation School, two middle schools and a new high school, which will add 8,000 student stations. A tech school is also slated in the 10 year plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A project completed was Gateway High School, which welcomed 2,000 student stations in August with a price tag of $98 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe focus is adding student stations. We recognize that is where the need is,\u201d<\/em> Spicker said of the East Zone, adding that they will build as much as they can and as fast as they can.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A ground breaking for Elementary J, which will be built next to the new Lehigh Acres Middle School on Sunrise Boulevard will have 972 student stations. He said a ground breaking will take place in March with a substantial completion by July 2023. The process has already started with naming the school. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Other projects include the construction of The Innovation School, renovations to Riverdale High School, the old Lehigh Acres Middle School and a black box theater at Veterans Park Academy for the Arts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The renovations for Riverdale High School will begin in June with two to three years to complete. Some of the priorities of the project include a new gymnasium and locker room building, new classrooms, a new JROTC tower, larger kitchen prep area and student dining and enhanced security and safety measures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Spicker said another big project that starts early next year is renovating the old Lehigh Acres Middle School, a $13 million project. He said they are renovating the school and bringing it up to standards of today with enhanced and reconfigured classrooms, new equipment, permanent walls, new cabinets and lighting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe plan is to incorporate it under the Veterans Park umbrella,\u201d<\/em> Spicker said, adding that they will have middle school students in class in August.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe recognize the need in the East Zone and have recognized the need. (That\u2019s why) the bulk is happening in the East Zone. Building a school is a four year to five year project,\u201d<\/em> Spicker said. \u201cThe funding started to come in 2019. We are catching up.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" With Lehigh Acres seeing an increase in population of 31.69 percent in 2010, compared to the overall population of 22.96 percent for all of Lee County, according to Lee County,… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":51809,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57,32],"tags":[991],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51808"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51808"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51808\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51811,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51808\/revisions\/51811"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/download-3.jpg\")
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