Lee County metro area third fastest growing area

Figures account for growth from 2000-2006

By Jessie L. Bonner
Thursday, April 5, 2007

Population figures released by the U.S. Census Bureau on Thursday and gathered from April 2000 to July 2006 show Lee County has the third fastest growing metropolitan area in the country, increasing from 440,888 residents to more than 570,000. The ranking is four notches above Collier County, which came in seventh place with a 25 percent increase in residents during the past six years.

The numbers derived from Lee County proved a somewhat less-than-astounding revelation for Michael Reitmann, someone who drives these roads, eats in these restaurants, and shops in these grocery stores.

As executive vice president of the Lee Building Industry Association, a Fort Myers-based trade group, Reitmann has kept a close tab on the pulse of construction that has both drawn and attempted to keep up with the influx of newcomers.

“For four years in a row we issued more building permits per capita than any other county in the United States,” Reitmann said.

While construction has lulled during the past year because of economic factors and land prices, Reitmann said, he doesn’t expect to see any slowing down in the population influx that has taken place during the past six years.

Not with employment on the rise and the recent development of two regional mega malls, the Gulf Coast Town Center in San Carlos Park and the Coconut Point Town Center in Estero on U.S. 41.

“They would not have invested in them unless they thought they would have the population to support it,” Reitmann said.

While Bonita Springs and Estero accounted for much of the spike in population during the late nineties, Lehigh Acres and Cape Coral are now proving major draws for people looking to build homes, said Wayne Daltry, director of Smart Growth for Lee County.

Last month, 73 percent of the 318 single-family home permits for construction issued in unincorporated Lee County, Bonita Springs and Fort Myers Beach were issued in Lehigh Acres, an area with more pre-platted lots than any other region in Southwest Florida.

During the past seven years, the county issued 40,071 permits for single-family homes, with nearly half of those issued in Lehigh Acres. About 8 percent, or 3,288, of those permits were for Bonita Springs, according to county records.

Some of the increased home ownership in Cape Coral can be attributed to the rising number of people who are retiring to Florida to live in houses they used to reside in only during the winter.

“We’re seeing a lot of those second homes being converted into permanent homes,” Daltry said.

The challenge will be to continue putting the necessary infrastructure in place to handle the population growth while preserving the environmental attributes that draw people to work and retire to Southwest Florida, Daltry said.

“The most worrisome is the sense of congestion. Then you start worrying about your natural climate,” he said. “If the air is toxic and there’s pollution, you end up with something you can’t fix with development.”

While Lee County was the third fastest growing metropolitan area in the United States according the census data, it was ranked 59th when nationwide population figures were calculated on a county-by-county basis, said Stefan Rayer with the Bureau of Economic & Business Research at the University of Florida in Gainesville.

Flagler County was ranked the fasted growing county in the state of Florida, with a 66 percent increase in population, and was ultimately ranked the fastest growing county in the country, Rayer said.

Flagler was followed by Oseola, Lake, St. Johns, St. Lucie, Pasco, and Lee counties in the state of Florida.

Collier County barely made the top 100 list when compared to growth rates in counties across the United States and was ranked 97th according to the data, Rayer said.