The Greater Pine Island Civic Association is the only civic group encompassing all of the Greater Pine Island area including St. James City, Bokeelia, Pineland and Matlacha. The GPICA strives to protect the health, safety and quality of life of the residents through educational programs and necessary group actions.

The GPICA has been active for over forty years and is responsible for the retention of the “Old Florida” charm and atmosphere that attracted most of us to this location.  In the 1980's when a developer in the St. James City area proposed high-rise condos and the traffic began to increase, a group of GPICA members with foresight spent thousands of dollars of their own money to write a land use plan specifically for Pine Island.  This was completed in 1989 and incorporated into the Lee County Comprehensive Land Use Plan as Goal 14.

Goal 14 includes sections limiting density of development, designating commercial nodes, setting height limitations for all buildings and establishing the 810/910 rule that restricts rezoning and permitting based on the traffic count as recorded through Matlacha.  In response to developers seeking elimination of some of Goal 14's provisions, the GPICA persuaded Lee County Commissioners to allow the residents of Pine Island to review and revise Goal 14, rather than changing or eliminating the provisions written in 1989.   As a result, with the approval of the County Commissioners,  the Land Use Committee was formed in late 1999 and a fundraiser was held to energize the project.

The first step was to contact all homeowner associations, other civic associations, fraternal organizations and churches on the island to inform them of the planned revision and to invite participation.  Advertised public meetings were held to obtain suggestions from all segments of the island population.  After over two years and hundreds of hours of work by Land Use Committee Members and professional consultants, the revised plan was presented to the County.  The County Commissioners and the Florida Department of Community Affairs approved the plan as written.  Years more of legal challenges followed and it wasn’t until May, 2007 that the Pine Island Plan was fully implemented. Because the law allows for comprehensive plan amendments every 6 months, we expect the Pine Island Plan to be challenged repeatedly by developers seeking to weaken it.

We need the support of all Greater Pine Islanders to keep that from happening. For more information on the Plan visit the Pine Island Plan page using the link at right.