The future of a planned condo duplex development near downtown Bonita Springs is up to City Council.

Council is scheduled to vote on the project March 5 after the city’s planning and zoning board recommended denial during its Nov. 19 meeting.

Sagamore Management Co. seeks to build 24 duplexes on 4.6 acres at the northeast corner of Dean Street and Matheson Avenue. The builder is asking for a deviation from Bonita’s zoning requirements, 10 feet instead of 20 feet between the buildings.

City planning staff recommended approval, while the planning board voted 4-1 against the project.

“I was very surprised,” Richard Forman, president of Sagamore Management Co., said about the recommended denial. He said he was seeking less density and less height than the city allows.

The project doesn’t have a name yet, and the duplex will become a condominium community once completed.

Planning board member Bruce Galloway was the most outspoken board member against the project. He questioned the 10-foot deviation.

“The 20-foot to 10-foot is an abomination,” he said at the Nov. 19 meeting. “Redesign it to fit the site.”

A half-dozen neighbors spoke out against the project, emphasizing the increase in traffic, lack of parking and drainage issues.

Zach Smith, who lives in front of the project, said he knew there would be development on the site one day. “Is this smart development?” he asked.

Forman said his planners listened to the neighborhood’s concerns and is modifying the plan.

“We’re working to try and be responsive and get something that works for everybody,” he said.

It’s too early to reveal specific changes, but it’s not likely they will lower the density, which already is fewer than allowed by the city, he said.

The project, because it’s being built in an established community, is known as an in-fill project, something the city has been emphasizing.

“Because it’s an in-fill it should be dealt with more sensibly and with more care because of its impact on the surrounding uses than a project out in a swamp somewhere,” Galloway said.

Forman said the Dean Street condos will be different from most of the development in Bonita that’s geared to the luxury market. Instead, it will be geared toward workers.

About 83% of people working in Bonita live elsewhere, he said.

He said he won’t set prices for the condos until the plans are firm.

“But you know they will be competitive to what the market is in that area. They will be appropriate for the people who are working,” Forman said.

The owners of the condos would add about $1.5 million annually to the Bonita economy, Forman said.

Forman has built other projects around the state, but this is his first in Southwest Florida. He doesn’t have other projects planned.

“Our goal, at this time, is to focus in on this project and make it successful,” he said.