When it comes to developing in the environmentally sensitive land set aside by Lee County for water recharge years ago, there are as many opinions as there are people. And when it comes to using the more than 90,000 acres of Density Reduction/Groundwater Resource land for affordable housing, environmentalists, land planners and others point to a host of potential problems from damage to the aquifer to rampant urban sprawl.

Still, many feel the land may be one of precious few opportunities left to create work force housing on a large scale.

The pressure is especially heavy in the city of Bonita Springs, which has about 4,500 acres of DR/GR land, relatively few large tracts of undeveloped land elsewhere in the city limits and a median home price nearing $500,000.

Those backing another look at the protected property — DR/GR land is zoned for only one home per 10 acres — say those factors make the land a potential solution to what is rapidly becoming an affordable housing crisis. They also argue the boundaries of the DR/GR might have been influenced by politics as much as science and that some of the protected land actually has little effect on the area's aquifers.

“There are two issues here,” said Andrew DeSalvo, commercial broker for Premier Properties. “First is whether the land is (serving) a groundwater recharge (function). The second is, if it's not, what should it be used for?”

To DeSalvo, the answer to the latter question is simple.

“Affordable housing is one of the major needs right now,” he said. “It would seem logical that we use this land to meet that.”

The 4,500 or so DR/GR acres in Bonita Springs alone could provide as many as 18,000 homes. The basis for DeSalvo's argument is a recent study commissioned by Premier planner Greg Rawl — which showed most of the land does not directly recharge the underlying aquifers. Contrarily, a similar study commissioned by the county led planning staff to recommend not allowing any further development in the DR/GR for the time being while more studies are conducted on the land and its relationship to the area's hydrology.

Skeptics say builders and property owners are just trying to use the affordable housing argument to open up lands that have long been off-limits to intense development.

Wayne Daltry, the county's Smart Growth director, notes there are already several proposals in the city and the county looking to build houses on the DR/GR — and most do not include an affordable housing component.

One of them calls for building up to 200 homes on 20 acres now home to Glade Haven Trailer Park. The other 20 acres, on Tower Road, is the owners are asking for a comprehensive plan change to high-density residential to build up to 200 homes there.

“Once you allow density on one parcel, you declare it allowable on the rest,” Daltry said. “Affordable housing needs are probably best met by smaller units in an urban area where you already have a footprint and secondary transportation.”

Most advocates of developing affordable housing on the sensitive lands admit that drastically increasing density limits would be key to making the affordable housing concept work.

“If you put more units, you can spread the costs and minimize the impacts,” said Russ Weyer, an analyst with Fishkind & Associates, an economic firm in Orlando.

The land could probably handle more density as long as the developments are required to have a plan for treating the surface water through flow-ways and retention areas, said Bonita Springs Mayor Jay Arend.

“I already have letters from three environmental groups, and one thing they all agree on is that the problem (in the DR/GR) is not recharging the water supply, but treating surface water,” Arend said.

He said developers would need more density than one home per 10 acres to build affordable housing. One solution would be to grant additional densities and in return requiring developers to build or make some kind of a contribution to affordable housing, he said.

That still leaves the problem of lack of infrastructure like roads in the DR/GR lands, which mostly are still rural or have less sparse development, said Adrienne Schmitz, director of residential community development for the Urban Land Institute, a national nonprofit research and educational association.

“Building affordable housing in DR/GR areas is just not practical. You are putting people on isolated parcels where they can't get the kind of services they need.”

Some officials, including Lee County Commissioner Ray Judah, have suggested inclusionary zoning as a possible solution. The concept has been used successfully in communities around the nation, including Fort Lauderdale.

Arend doesn't believe that's the answer.

“Let's say you build a gated community that's upscale and you want to put affordable housing in there,” Arend said. “The community has a maintenance fee or association fee and how do you strap that on to someone who has an affordable housing unit?”

Arend favors giving builders options: Building on-site affordable units, off-site affordable units or making a cash contribution to the city's affordable housing trust fund.

The latter solution hasn't worked well in Bonita. The city has offered additional density in exchange for a contribution to the affordable housing trust fund, but the contribution cost was so low, though, that the city wasn't able to collect enough cash to make much of a dent in the affordable housing problem.

Daltry, meanwhile, continues to insist that the land is not suitable for development, even for affordable housing.

“Redistributing growth causes the need for new infrastructure as much as new growth,” Daltry said. “Arguments for opening up the DR/GR for affordable housing are just arguments to open it up for development.”