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When the Estero Council of Community Leaders meets today it is expected to choose one of three options to seek an end to the contentious 2-mile buffer between Estero and Bonita Springs.

The choices being weighed are the work of an ECCL committee that has been examining the annexation/incorporation issue since October. Estero leaders declined to discuss specifics Thursday, but a draft document on the organization’s Web site dated Nov. 10 and titled “Buffer Zone Position” spells out the trio of alternatives.

ECCL Chairman Don Eslick will take the winning option before the Lee County Legislative Delegation when it meets Nov. 29. Eslick has already submitted a request to be on the agenda to speak about four items including the “duration” of the buffer.

“Since it’s our last meeting before the delegation meets, if we’re going to do anything, we’ll have to do it tomorrow,” Eslick said Thursday. “(Incorporation/annexation committee chairman John Goodrich) will make his presentation, and then we’ll go from there.”

Bonita Springs officials have been increasingly concerned that Estero would make a bid to wipe out the buffer.

Bonita Springs City Councilman Ben Nelson said the city will be represented at the legislative delegation meeting to make its case in favor of the buffer.

“We’re going to stand up at that same meeting and say, ‘We’re not interested (in eliminating the buffer),’ and for good reason,” Nelson said, adding that he believes buffers help cities work better with one another by maintaining neutral ground between them.

City Manager Gary Price said he’s not interested in turning the buffer issue into a battle, although he believes killing it would rob those within it of the right to choose between the two communities.

“This issue isn’t going to hurt Bonita,” Price said. “If they are asking the Legislature to waive the two-mile buffer they are denying the residents in that area to decide if they want to live in Bonita or unincorporated Estero.”

The buffer is a major factor as Estero residents weigh whether to become a city. State law mandates that a municipality have minimum distance of two miles from another incorporated area or have an extraordinary natural boundary — like a river — between them. That means that unless the buffer is eliminated, the southern border of a city of Estero would be Williams Road, and the new municipality would miss out on high tax dollar generators like Coconut Point Mall and the Hyatt Regency Coconut Point Resort & Spa.

Bonita Springs wants to maintain the buffer, leaving open its option of annexing to the north one day and claiming those same lucrative tax dollars.

Referring to the buffer as “the obstacle,” the options outlined in the committee’s position paper are:

1. By special act in the next legislative session waive the provision of the law that contains the obstacle.

2. By special act in the next legislative session establish a date certain, e.g. Dec. 31, 2009, by which time, if the city of Bonita Springs has not annexed the area, the provisions establishing the obstacle will be waived.

3. Same as Alternative 2, but in addition at least three months prior to any vote by the voters in the area, require the city of Bonita Springs to provide voters in the area with the following information:

A. How, if at all, the city of Bonita Springs’ form of government would be amended - with emphasis on how citizens in the area would be represented;

B. How, if at all, the annexation would impact the level of public services in the city of Bonita Springs and the area to be annexed;

C. How, if at all, the annexation will impact taxation in the newly formed municipality.

John Goodman, chairman of the incorporation/annexation committee, declined to discuss his committee’s recommendations.

“All I can say is that it’s on the agenda regarding the Nov. 29 legislative delegation issues,” he said. “One of those issues is the annexation/incorporation issue regarding the 2-mile buffer zone. My expectation is that we’ll make a decision on the matter after it’s been discussed by the full ECCL board.”

Everyone involved will have the opportunity to address the buffer issue when the Bonita Springs City Council meets with ECCL in joint session Nov. 30, a day after the legislative delegation meeting.

Today’s ECCL meeting is at 1 p.m. at Estero Community Park.

State Rep. Trudi Williams, R-Fort Myers, the chairwoman of the Lee County Legislative Delegation, said she would be unlikely to support a buffer elimination proposal without significant lead time.

“Would we waive it (the buffer) this year? No,” she said. “We would have to give Bonita Springs ample time to decide what it wants to do.”

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Staff Writer Tom Hanson contributed to this report.