We have a very twisted thing going on here. The community of Estero wanted to secede from the county and become an incorporated town. In order to keep that tax base in the county coffers they made a deal with the devil, with a county ordinance. The Estero Design Committee has to stamp every permit that is not a stand alone single family dwelling (all commercial, new development or common property in an existing development). They have rules about what architecture is acceptable, trees, green space etc. That means everyone has the same "house of Zorro" look (barrel tile roof, taco bell facade with baby poop tan stucco). This is an unelected board who are pretty much self appointed. They are dominated by 2 gated community HOAs. I expect there will be a law suit some day that declares the whole thing unconstitutional but so far even Wal-Mart has bent over and taken their medicine in order to build here.
This is the only community in the county with this kind of power.
