Pine Island's own clearing threshold
Lee County treats Pine Island differently. Elsewhere in the unincorporated county a single-family lot needs a vegetation removal permit at 5 acres; on Pine Island the trigger is anything over 2 acres. Many island homesites are bigger than a city lot, so check the acreage before anyone brings a mulcher.
Density is limited too. In the Coastal Rural areas the county caps density at one home per 2.7 acres, and larger developments have to keep much of the land in native habitat or farming. For a homeowner that usually means a big lot where only part gets cleared, which suits forestry mulching better than a full scrape.
Building permits go to Lee County Development Services, driveway connections go to Lee DOT with the county's 15-inch minimum culvert, and wildlife rules match the mainland: 25 feet around gopher tortoise burrows, and owl buffers that grow to 33 feet in nesting season.
Waterfront lots and shorelines
St. James City has canals, Monroe Canal and Henley Canal among them, and lots around the island face Matlacha Pass, Pine Island Sound or San Carlos Bay. That is saltwater, so shoreline work runs through Florida DEP, and sometimes the Army Corps, on top of the county permit.
Under DEP's riprap general permit, a single-family property can armor up to 100 linear feet of shoreline that is eroding or likely to erode, with the toe no more than 10 feet waterward of the high water line, using natural boulders or clean concrete rubble one to three feet across. We place rip-rap behind a turbidity barrier to the approved design and work around the mangroves the way the permit spells out.
Building back after Ian
Rebuilt homes on the island have to meet the flood rules on the new plans. In an A zone that means the lowest floor at base flood elevation plus one foot, or the design flood elevation if that is higher, and the height comes from stem walls or a compacted fill pad. In a V zone, FEMA does not allow structural fill to support the building at all, so the house goes up on an open foundation and our work is the grade around it.
Before a rebuild starts, many lots still need old slabs, debris and dead trees removed. We haul it off the island, fill and grade, and set the driveway and culvert, with storm cleanup and hauling as the first step when a lot still shows the storm.
