It's About Growth: Getting Smart

Solve southwest Florida’s transportation woes. Ensure an

adequate water supply. Keep the region’s babies healthy, and care for the

mentally ill. That’s just a portion of what’s on Wayne Daltry’s to-do list.

Anyone other than Daltry, the executive director of Lee

County’s new Smart Growth Department, might be overwhelmed. But Daltry boasts

decades of planning experience with regional organizations and has what he

calls an “enlightened self-interest” in succeeding. He also comes to the job

with votes of confidence from environmentalists, politicians and business

leaders, who all agree that he’s the man to get a handle on balancing a growing

population and the region’s attractive quality of life.

“I’m just pleased he’s here,” says Daltry’s new boss, county

manager Don Stilwell.

County commissioners created the position in October as part

of an effort to reconfigure its smart growth initiative. An original 36-member

task force created by the economic development office’s Horizon Council to

address growth issues was dismantled late last year after accusations that it

was top-heavy with developers. Commission-ers appointed 18 people to a new

smart growth advisory committee.

No one understands the dynamics of growth as well as Daltry,

according to Steve Tirey, executive director of The Chamber of Southwest

Florida. “Wayne is well received by representatives in the business community,”

he says. “He’s always been able to think through issues, balancing the needs of

the public and the greater good against the needs of a balanced economy and

investments.”

Daltry spent nearly 20 years as executive director of the

Southwest Florida Regional Planning Council, an advisory agency for Charlotte,

Collier, Glades, Hendry, Lee and Sarasota counties. He’s passionate about

planning—he’ll talk about Everglades restoration and school facilities

practically in the same breath because he knows that they are pieces of the same

quality-of-life puzzle that includes transportation, social services, natural

resources, economic viability and community character. What’s more, he knows

the players in the numerous organizations and governmental agencies involved.

But before he took this job, Daltry had a different position

in mind. He intended to leave the planning council to run for the county

commission seat held by Andy Coy, a District 4 representative currently serving

his second term who was considering running for the Congressional seat held by

U.S. Rep. Porter Goss. That all changed when Goss (R-Sanibel) announced his

intent to run for re-election. Coy decided not to run against Goss, Daltry decided not to challenge Coy,

and Daltry accepted the smart growth job.

Daltry sees his new role as serving as a liaison between the

smart growth committee and the county, and to other governmental bodies and

organizations throughout the region. “We know whatever happens in Southwest

Florida affects Lee County, and whatever happens in Lee affects Southwest

Florida,” Stilwell says.

The former smart growth task force set the groundwork for

the new committee, Daltry says. Many participants, including committee leaders

Dennis Gilkey of The Bonita Bay Group and environmental educator Bill Hammond,

will continue to contribute to the new group. “No one’s shut out of the

process,” Daltry says.

The next step is to search for solutions to previously

identified problems and issues, many of which are interrelated. Among the

committee’s urgent tasks are these:

• Manage Southwest Florida’s water resources and keep the

Everglades restoration project on track.

• Consider the extra burdens local governments are bearing

as a result of state and federal funding cutbacks, including social and health

care issues.

• Create a better redevelopment plan for older subdivisions

and help push forward the Fort Myers downtown redevelopment plan.

• Increase job creation and income levels.

• Improve transportation.

• Persuade school and government officials to work together

on school-building concerns.

• Ensure that the South Florida Water Management District,

the Department of Environmental Protection, the Metropolitan Planning

Organization, the Southwest Florida Regional Planning Council and others are

fully involved in projects they can help with.

Yet ambitious as that list is, Daltry aims to accomplish

most, if not all, of his goals within two years—the amount of time he’s

committing to the county. On the job, Daltry will get input from the smart

growth committee and others, and make recommendations (with Stilwell’s support)

to county commissioners. Those ideas could affect everything from residential

development to environmental policy. “Wayne has the opportunity to create a new

structured dialogue between partners in developing the shape of the business

community in Southwest Florida,” Tirey says.

“My job is to make sure the issues are fully on the table,”

Daltry says. “If we don’t talk about the real issues, we won’t get real

answers.”

Wayne Daltry: Personal File

Education: Master’s degree in urban and regional planning,

Florida State University, 1973; bachelor’s degree in political science, The

Citadel, 1969.

Previous job: Executive director of the Southwest Florida

Regional Planning Council, 1982-2002.

Family: Wife, Marta; two children, Wyatt, 23, a Cape Coral

planner, and Tara, 20, a student at Edison Community College.

Age: 54.

Off the clock: Member of the Rotary Club of Fort Myers, the

Calusa Nature Center and Cape Coral United Methodist Church.

Ways he blows off steam: Reads, walks, travels and plays

computer strategy games.

Years lived in Southwest Florida: 51 years, off and on,

including 27 years in Lee County.

Considers his biggest accomplishment: A toss-up between

developing a practical hurricane preparedness program that received national

recognition and promoting the protection of Charlotte Harbor.

How the area’s growth has affected him personally: “It gave

me a job. No, really, it provided enough employment opportunities and cultural

opportunities that my kids—who grew up here—can seriously consider living here

without feeling deprived of life experiences.”