Lee County rules that apply in North Fort Myers
Because North Fort Myers is unincorporated, Cape Coral's city rules stop at the city line. Your house permit goes to Lee County Development Services, and anything in the road right-of-way, like a culvert or driveway apron, needs a Lee DOT residential driveway permit before the pipe goes in. Lee County requires at least a 15-inch pipe in its right-of-way and drainage easements, in reinforced concrete, ADS double wall or A-2000, with mitered ends.
On the flood maps, Lee County treats zones A, AH, AE and VE as the Special Flood Hazard Area. Even in an X zone the county wants the livable floor at least a foot above the crown of the road. A lot that sits low to the street can need more fill than the buyer pictured, and if final grade lands more than 18 inches above the crown or the neighbor's developed lot, a site fill grading plan goes in with the permit.
Bigger tracts are where people get surprised. Lee County requires a vegetation removal permit for single-family lots of 5 acres or more in the unincorporated county, and its fees double for permits applied for after the clearing is done. Under that size the building permit carries the clearing, but FWC's gopher tortoise and burrowing owl rules apply at any size.
Larger tracts, older homesites and brush
On larger North Fort Myers parcels, forestry mulching is often the right first pass. The mulcher grinds palmetto and small trees where they stand and leaves a mat that holds the soil, and we pull stumps only where the pad, drive and septic will go. Burning is a separate road: it takes a Florida Forest Service authorization, and land clearing piles must sit 1,000 feet from other occupied buildings unless an air curtain incinerator is used.
Older homesites bring different work: a slab or shed to break out, an old driveway to remove, maybe an abandoned septic tank to dig out under a permit the owner or plumber pulls. We haul the debris, fill the holes and regrade so the lot drains before anything new goes up.
Getting the yard ready for the CO
Final grade is the last thing an inspector looks at outside. The yard has to fall away from the house, side swales have to carry water to the street or the rear, and nothing can be left blocking the road swale. We grade with a track loader, fix the low spots the first rain shows us, and leave the ground ready for sod.
For builders running several houses in North Fort Myers, we schedule backfill, culverts and final grade so each step lands right after the trade before it. When the schedule moves, Chop answers the phone himself and moves with it.
