![\"\"](\"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/LehighAcres-wooden-nickel.jpg\")
The sprawling community of retirees, working families, and a growing Hispanic population, currently functions under the Lee County government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lehigh residents like Derek Felder say they feel neglected. Felder argues a city could bring more jobs and better roads to Lehigh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“It allows the people to be in better communication with their government. And on a more personal level,” Felder said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lee County government is neutral on incorporation. But it points out it invests heavily in Lehigh, which is believed to have a population of about 125,000. The county said it spends millions of dollars a year on Lehigh roads, canal dredging, construction permits, utilities, and parks. The county will break ground early next year on a new park-and-ride Lee Tran bus center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All this satisfies Bill McKenzie. “I think it’s working fine the way it is,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
McKenzie added that he’s lived in Lehigh 30 years, and gets by on social security alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“if they incorporate and we have to pay city taxes, that’s another drain on my income,” he said.\u00a0 “I can’t afford it right now.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sara Chavez said she has six children and has lived in Lehigh for 10 years. She worries about crime and hopes a city government would provide more for the Lee Sheriff’s Office efforts in Lehigh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“It’s not that the sheriff’s not doing the job,” she said. “They work hard and are working on it.\u00a0 But they need more help.\u00a0 And if that (incorporation) would help them get more support, staff, and funding, then that would be a great idea.”\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Charlotte Rae Nicely heads up the non-profit community services in Lehigh. She said her agency has served 38,000 people this year alone — many needing help because of higher rents and food costs. She said it’s a million-dollar question whether a city could do more for the needy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I feel our town is growing by leaps and bounds,” Nicely said. “And we need to be as prepared and ready for it as possible. We want to offer people as many services as we can, without their having to travel to Fort Myers.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Becoming a city is not an easy or fast process. Unite Lehigh first has to raise $55,000 for a feasibility study. If that study confirms the need for a city, the group then must get the backing of the state legislature, the governor, and a majority of voters in an election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2008 Lehigh Acres voters cast ballots in a non-binding referendum on incorporation. Fifty-eight percent voted against becoming a city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Derek Felder, who moved here from Wisconsin a few years ago, says his group must fire up the people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“There seems to be a lack of notice and lack of involvement down here,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The group says 2026 is the earliest that Lehigh Acres incorporation could be approved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mike Walcher is a Visiting Assistant Professor in Journalism at FGCU. He also contributes to WGCU News.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" WGCU | By Mike Walcher Efforts to turn unincorporated Lehigh Acres into a city over the past 25 years have not been successful. Now a group called Unite Lehigh is making… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":25606,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[2586],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58924"}],"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=58924"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58924\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58926,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58924\/revisions\/58926"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}