Focus Magazine of SWFL Cheers To Your Style | Page 113

Estero:

The Present, Past and Potential Future

By Bill Schiller

For all the contemplating on candidates
confronting those who’ll cast a vote in the
November 4 General Election, the residents of
one Southwest Florida area will be especially
deliberative in determining the response to a
question that some suggest portends consequences more significant than any singular
candidate. That stands to reason, after all, the
voting results may fundamentally affect the
fate and future of a community recognized
as one of the fastest growing unincorporated
areas of Florida. The community is Estero and
the relevant question is whether residents will
vote in favor of it becoming an actual incorporated municipality with all the inherent rights
of self-governance, or will they simply opt to
maintain the status quo?
Estero is geographically located in an unincorporated section of Lee County, between the
larger Metropolitan Statistical Areas of Fort
Myers (to the North) and Collier County City of
Naples (to the South). The community is home
to some 23,000 full-time residents, yet those
numbers swell by the thousands each season
with the migrational proclivities of snowbirds.
Over the te