Four years of negotiations are finished and now is the time to raise $82 million.
Trust for Public Land announced last week that it reached an agreement with Seminole Gulf Railway to purchase 14.9 miles of right-of-way from Alico Road to just south of the Lee-Collier County line for the Bonita-Estero Bike Trail (BERT). The Trust has until March 2026 to raise the money.
Using the railroad right-of-way has been talked about for years, said Robert Fay, executive vice-president of the family-run shortline railroad. The railroad stopped using the track after the 2008 recession. Only two businesses were using the line, then one moved to Fort Myers and the second stopped shipping by rail.
The railroad and TPL negotiated for four years before reaching an agreement.
“Rail purchases are complicated,” said Charles Hines, program director for the Florida Gulf Coast Trail. “They aren’t your standard real estate purchase.”
Hines said there are lots of ways to raise the money to buy the right-of-way.
He was a Sarasota County commissioner when voters approved an increase in property taxes to raise $65 million for a bike trail.
“The funding strategy is probably going to be a little broader than that,” he said.
Bonita Springs, Estero and Lee and Collier counties could pitch in, he said. The Florida Department of Transportation Sun Trail program, federal programs, grants and private donations are other options.
“That strategy hasn’t been completely formulated yet because this really just happened,” Hines said of the agreement.
TPL will be meeting soon with elected officials from the two counties and Bonita and Estero.
“They’re familiar with the project. They’ve been supportive of it, but now it’s the real deal,” Hines said.
TPL won’t just be focusing on raising the money for the next two years. It will do it’s due diligence, environmental studies, look at the design and rally the communities.
“A lot of what’s going to be going on in the next year, year and a half is to show the community why this is a good investment and to get them to buy in and a lot of that already has been done.”
The Friends of the Bonita Estero Rail Trail was founded in September 2022 and already has 3,000
members according to its website.
The $82 million price tag is just to buy the right-of-way. Hines didn’t want to speculate how much it would cost to build or where the money would come from.
Figuring out the cost can be done while TPL is raising money to buy the land, he said.
The Lee County Metropolitan Planning Organization 2023 feasibility study estimated it would cost $4 million to $6 million a mile. Its study included overpasses at Alico and Corkscrew roads and Estero Parkway.
Three or four bridges would be needed to cross waterways, Hines said.
MPO Executive Director Don Scott said at a workshop in Estero last year that money is available for planning and building the bikeway.
The popular idea isn’t without its critics. Some residents who live along the route have spoken out at public meetings. The most vocal are residents of Estero Country Club.
The trail would bisect through the community.
Hines said the community has legitimate concerns about people coming on to their private property.
“Through design factors that can totally be taken away,” he said. “It’s just an overpass or an underpass and gates.”
The Legacy Trail goes through Oscar Scherer State Park and the gates close when the park closes at night, he said.
If Lee County would take control of the trail and make it into a park then the sheriff can control that section, he said.
“Right now, the only people who can say anything about that section is Seminole Gulf.”
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