Sanibel Island, Florida is a Barrier Island Sanctuary

The city of Sanibel’s founding fathers was determined to keep Sanibel Island the pristine, sanctuary island they found when they came to the island in the years before incorporation in 1974. Prior to 1963 when the Sanibel Causeway was built to connect the island with Fort Myers, they came by ferry, and once on the island they were entranced by the white, sandy, shelling beaches and the relaxed island atmosphere.

When developers from Fort Myers and elsewhere began eyeing the island as their next development project, with a goal of building 90,000 units on the island, local residents rose up and incorporated the city. Once incorporation was complete the new city council passed strict building and development codes that limited the number of units on the island to 9,000.

Sanibel was saved from overdevelopment and through the years, as it added 28 miles of shared-use paths and beach parks for access to its shelling beaches, the island has maintained its sanctuary quality and is a destination for visitors from around the world.

Sanibel’s vision statement, with its hierarchy of values, was written to ensure that the island stayed as close to its then-existing character as it was in 1974. It is as central today to everything the city does as it was when it was written.

The statement says in part that:

Sanctuary

Sanibel is and shall remain a barrier island sanctuary, one in which a diverse population lives in harmony with the island's wildlife and natural habitats. The Sanibel community must be vigilant in the protection and enhancement of its sanctuary characteristics.

The City of Sanibel will resist pressures to accommodate increased development and redevelopment that is inconsistent with the Sanibel Plan, including this Vision Statement.

The City of Sanibel will guard against and, where advisable, oppose human activities in other jurisdictions that might harm the island's sensitive habitats, including the island's surrounding aquatic ecosystems.

Community

Sanibel is and shall remain a small town community whose members choose to live in harmony with one another and with nature; creating a human settlement distinguished by its diversity, beauty, uniqueness, character and stewardship.

Diversity

The City of Sanibel cherishes its cultural, social, ecological, and economic diversity, and will endeavor to maintain it.

Beauty

The City of Sanibel will foster quality, harmony and beauty in all forms of human alteration of the environment. The community aesthetic is defined as a casual style; one which is adapted to a relaxed island quality of life and respectful of local history, weather, culture and natural systems.

Uniqueness

The City of Sanibel chooses to remain unique through a development pattern which reflects the predominance of natural conditions and characteristics over human intrusions. All forms of development and redevelopment will preserve the community's unique small town identity.

Character

The City of Sanibel chooses to preserve its rural character in its setting within an urbanizing county. "Auto-urban" development influences will be avoided. The commercialization of natural resources will be limited and strictly controlled.

Stewardship

In keeping with the foregoing principles, the City of Sanibel affirms a land ethic that recognizes landholding-both public and private-as a form of stewardship, involving responsibilities to the human and natural communities of the island and its surroundings, and to future generations.

Attraction

The Sanibel Community recognizes that its attractiveness to visitors is due to the island's quality as sanctuary and as community. The City of Sanibel will welcome visitors who are drawn by, and are respectful of, these qualities; it will resist pressures to accommodate visitor attractions and activities that compromise these qualities.

Hierarchy of Values

This three-part statement of the community's vision of its future is hierarchy; one in which the dominant principle is Sanibel's sanctuary quality. Sanibel shall be developed as a community only to the extent to which it retains and embraces this quality of sanctuary. Sanibel will serve as attraction only to the extent to which it retains its desired qualities as sanctuary and community.

The vision statement above explains why Sanibel Island is a special place for special people.

Mike Badenoch is an exclusive buyer agent and broker associate with Buyer's Choice Realty Group, Inc., Sanibel, Florida.