B36 March 21,1980 Island Reporter Gulf Ridge... a secluded, gulf front Opinions on Pine Island as varied as the people By Bill Motchan Cheeseburger Basket "all the way" is also a good luncheon bet at $1.55. The island of Matlacha welcomes Driving through Matlacha across community of distinctive homesites. the visitor to Pine Island. Created lush, green Little Pine Island, the from dredged-up mangrove land, ISLAND BRA visitor crosses a series of small Matlacha's main street is lined bridges onto the big island and with marine shops, seafood right to Pine Island Center, the site of the new shopping plaza. Pine „ Island,_ 'the sleeping Sanibel's Bank of the Islands is confident To the left is St. James City; to giant,' is stirring. For more see enough of Pine Island's the right Bokeelia. You can drive page 23-A. growth potential to for miles and miles and not see a restaurants and good-natured open a branch office. thing. The population is spread out fishermen on their way to the pier. in patches. Occassionally, a small Stepping into the Lob Lolly, one group of residential streets will ap- begins to understand the flavor of buck-toothed stuffed rabbit, the years, the sleepy diner now pear and fade just as quickly. A Pine Island, Resting on the main Last Supper in felt, and various charges a quarter. number of huge trailer parks pop road into Matlacha, the Lob Lolly Cincinnati Reds memorabilia. Agnes "Scottie>! Paris recom- customer is greeted by a smiling, Home of the nickel cup of coffee for mends the Ham Steak, but the # Continued on 14-A VOL.7 NO.'21 SERVING SANIBEL-CAPTIVA AND THE ISLANDS FROM ESTERO BAY TO THE GASPARILLAS ©SWKOO.1 Publicotiom 1979 25c Sentiment is for 'little or nothing9 at intersection By Don Whitehead A WONDERFUL WAY TO ENJOY - Nearly 2,000 feet of White sand Gulf beach. It offers a dle the circulation anticipated at full build- natural environment. own proposal sketched out. It would in- volve retaining the present intersection After city councilmen and nearly 100 out under Sanibel's land use plan. He also said thai even though "some delightfully private place to enjoy the shelling and some of the world's most beautiful sunsets. • Gulf- Harry Bertossa, of the firm of Howard Florida crackers" won't want to leave the but with some changes in turn lanes and Sanibel residents heard a traffic engineer "stack" lanes. This concept also appeared Ridge will offer two tennis courts for the private use of its inhabitants. They wilTbe conveniently go through a rerun on a half dozen designs Needles Tammen & Bergendoff (HNTB), island in the event of a hurricane, the city said that the existing design would handle council had to plan on the basis of "100 per- to win favor with some in the audience. for the. much-disputed Causeway There was considerable sentiment in I located in the common area at the west end of the property. • Adjacent to the tennis courts, the 50 Road/Periwinkle/Lindgren intersection, a approximately 1000 vehicles per hour, cent evacuation." He said that he recogniz- while a minimum of 2000 per hour could be ed that much of the problem was with favor of delaying on any changes until foot Gulf Ridge pool will offer a perfect place to refresh and relax with families and neighbors. • Gulf decision was made Tuesday that council there is an opportunity to assess the im- would take yet another look at thd problem expected at build-out. He said that it was MacGregor Boulevard after leaving his responsibility, as a traffic engineer, to Sanibel, but added that Lee County was pact that will result from completion of the Ridge is located at one of the quietest parts of Sanibel, but the restaurants and shops are just minutes next Tuesday. approved Gulf Drive connectors. Bertossa On March 4, the council had approved a look ahead five, ten or twenty years in mak- now preparing to cope with this situation. away. The Ding Darling Sanctuary is directly across the road. The entrance gatehouse and private ing recommendations on intersection im- From the audience, speaker after said that his firm did not view the new Gulf design that has been labelled the "lopsided Drive as a "bypass" to Periwinkle Way, but Or but this proposal came under fire from "provenriehts. " •*"-* ~ '* - "" speaker came to the microphone to endorse roads will minimize traffic and distrubance. the concept ot'^doing nothing or very little" he did agree that it would take some of the many residents, particularly those living traffic load off Periwinfcle. en the eastern end of the island. In reviewing the six designs council had .with the Intersection. There seemed to be The residents who came to the special considered before adopting the "lopsided virtually no'pubttc support for any of the Councilman Porter Goss kicked off the This will be Buckthorn Lane at council hearing this week appeared to be 0," which had been recommended by six proposed designs, which have price"tags hearing by explaining "how we got Here." virtually unanimous in favoring only HNTB, Bertossa said that his firm had con- ranging from $150,000 for some relatively He pointed out that as early as August modest modification in the existing four- sidered certain "constraints" in making its minor improvements in the existing four- 1977 the planning commission had tagged Gulf Ridge ... way stop intersection, even though they choices on design- that islanders would be way stop design to $360,000 for an intersection improvements, including this were cautioned^ by the traffic engineer that happy with low speeds, unhappy with traf- elaborate rotary system. the intersection would not be able to han- fic signals, and concerned to maintain the One resident, Dr. E. Allen Miller, had his THE PERFECT PLACE TO BUILD - The vegetation is native Sanibel with hundreds of gumbo limbos, buttonwoods, and a variety of other island plants. Every care has been taken to preserve this natural beauty in the development of Buckthorn Lane homesites. Utilities are underground and clearing has been carefully controlled to insure privacy and protect the ecology of the area. Comprehensive deed restric- 'Campbell claims tions have been established providing ample setbacks and ap- proval of each application for building by a homeowners 'rape of refuge' association. The J.N. "Ding" Darling National which seems, to this writer at least, to be Wildlife Refuge is just that - a refuge, a rather more elaborate than necessary and place where wildlife is protected from the which covers about three cleared - really building, noise and pollution that skinned - acres with three buildings totall- THE AFFORDABLE PLACE TO BUY-Your homesite on characterize human habitats. Why is it, ing 7,000 square feet, more'or less. Buckthorn Lane may cost you considerably less than you im- then, thai Refuge officials chose to ignore As you enter from the highway, you first some basic rules and regulations - even pass the paint and oil storage building, a agine. When you consider the size of the lots — over an acre — common sense - when they undertook con- very solid concrete structure. Then you and the swimming pool, tennis courts and deeded access to struction of a new maintenance facility just come upon the shop storage, and it is not the Gulf beach, the price of $47,000 seems very competitive .west of the Sanibel Elementary School? really too much of an exaggeration to com- That's the question George Campbell asks pare it to a 747 maintenance shop. In the indeed- 25% down and five years to pay the balance. in this article. Campbell is familiar to far left-hand corner is an equipment island residents and Island Reporter storage area. Fifteen or sixteen (I can't tell readers for his outspoken opinions in exactly from the drawing) parking places defense of the environment are provided and the whole atrocity is be- Please ... more information on Gulf Ridge ing built in the old traditional destructive —,_ Near Gulf lots @ $47,000 to $55,000 By George Campbell © Florida way - rape the land and skin it bare. (We have just 8 left Dick Workman this week submitted his resignation as administrative director of Have you observed the new environmen- Even the most money-oriented the SanibelrCaptiva Conservation Foundation. Workman will stay on for 90 days tal destruction that recently took place a developers today are learning to preserve Bayou lots near Gulf @ $70,000 to assure a 'smooth transition.' Story on S-A. few hundred feet west of the Sanibel native vegetation on Sanibel. Some have (We have just 2 left) Elementary School along the San-Cap learned the lesson so well that they are Highway? Have you turned into the new beginning to realize the true value of NAME__ drive there to see the mini-desert on which native vegetation and even save it in areas STREET are located several overly large concrete away from Sanibel where they are not re- structures that I have named "Stonehenge quired by law to do so. Witness the CITY .STATE. .ZIP. Sanibel?" This is part of the new "develop- development on the left-hand side of the PHONE. ' ment" bequeathed to us late in the Ford ad- road shortly before you reach Miner's ministration by Undersecretary Nat Reed Plaza, where the developer has saved many KNUDSEN REALTY, INC. who was here for the dedication, some fine native trees even though no require- 1619 Periwinkle Way decade and a half after the fact, of the J.N. ment to do so exists.