2010 Downtown Plan - Fort Myers Business Development

DOWNTOWN FT. MYERS, FLORIDAGENERAL CONTROLSThe TransectThe Transect: a system of classifi cation deploying theconceptual range rural -to- urban to arrange in useful orderthe typical elements of urbanism. The Transect is a naturalordering system, as every urban element easily fi nds a placewithin its continuum. For example, a street is more urbanthan a road, a curb more urban than a swale, a brick wall moreurban than a wooden one, an allee of trees more urban thana cluster. This gradient when rationalized and subdivided,becomes the urban Transect, the basis of a common zoningsystem.The continuum of the Transect, when subdivided, forms thebasis of the zoning categories: Rural, Sub-Urban, GeneralUrban, Urban Center, and Urban Core.The Transect technique is derived from ecological analysiswhere it is applied to present the sequence of natural habitatfrom shore-dune-upland or wetland-woodland-prairie.Although the transect classifi cation system contains both ruraland sub-urban zones, there are no such zones in downtownFort Myers.However, the historic 1920’s era Dean Park neighborhood atthe eastern edge of the downtown does share some of thecharacteristics of a Sub-Urban zone and the Urban Generalarea described on the following page. The majority of DeanPark residents have expressed their desire to limit higherdensity development in the neighborhood. Consequently,Dean Park will retain its existing land use designation asA-1 single family residential with some modifi cations whichrecognize the unique characteristics of the neighborhood(A-1DP).The transect is a classifi cation system ranging from the most rural to the most urban types of natural and built environments. It provides a method of land-use planning rooted in the overall character of the places to be preservedand built. Downtown Fort Myers is predominantly characterized by Urban General, Urban Center, and Urban Core places and conditions.III.3