CODY DULANEY

CDULANEY@NEWS-PRESS.COM

Calling all millennials.

Fort Myers officials are willing to rewrite the law books to make shopping, dining and living around downtown more attractive to you.

More than 60 people attended a public meeting Monday night to learn about the push to increase density — or number of units allowed — in downtown, and a neighborhood just south of downtown known as midtown.

Higher density around downtown means more buildings for urban housing, retail and coffee shops.

You know, all the things millennials like.

“This is long overdue,” said Jack Luft, a local planner. “We’re losing our young people. They want to live in downtown, they want to work in downtown and we have nothing for them.”

The city’s goal seems simple: diversify the economy, create a walkable environment and establish a hub of activity. Then, theoretically, millennials will come, City Manager Saeed Kazemi said.

To get started, the city paid $175,000 for the firm Johnson Engineering to study the capacity of downtown and midtown, Kazemi said.

And the firm found many properties weren’t utilizing their potential, because a lot of red tape blocks developers who want more density.

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Based on the city’s water and sewer capacities, about 3,850 more units could go into downtown and midtown, said Laura DeJohn, with Johnson Engineering.

This “surplus” exists because of the requirements necessary to achieve bonus density, Kazemi said.

As it stands today, developers are allowed 35 units per acre in downtown by right, and 70 units per acre under a bonus condition. And to achieve that condition, a developer would need a certain amount of affordable housing, green space, parking and several other variables.

The firm is proposing to remove those requirements and allow the 70-unit bonus by right. To do that, it would require changes to the downtown plan, the city’s comprehensive plan and land development code. It would have to work its way through various government boards before the city council can vote, which isn’t expected to come until around May.

But there are several ongoing projects that could create the momentum needed for this plan to be a success, DeJohn said. The renovations to Harborside Event Center and plans to create a downtown convention center hotel; the Southwest Florida Community Foundation and its goal to create a regional high-tech hub; the redevelopment of another downtown neighborhood known as Gardner's Park.

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Another informational session is open to the public Jan. 18, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., at Fort Myers Fire Station No. 1, 2033 Jackson St.

But people like JJ Cochrane, a local real estate agent, are kind of wary and hope a serious level of planning is applied to this idea.

“I’m anxious to see what they can do, but it has to be done,” she said. “Just do it carefully.”