Category: Columns

A New Perspective – 9-16-2004: Impact Fees

September 16, 2004

Golden Gate Gazette

The County Board of Commissioners is doing a better job than most people give them credit for. They are tackling the no-win situations and fighting the loud nay Sayers pretty good. Unlike the former school superintendent, none of our county officials have quit after taking a public beating from the vocal minority.
People want growth to pay for growth by taxing newcomers to the county with increasing impact fees. We charge more in impact fees than any county in the world. The general consensus has been to ‘stiff’ the new folks and let us continue with better and more services at the newcomer’s expense.
The story goes that the recent hurricanes haven’t made a direct hit on Collier County because they couldn’t afford the impact fees.
So far, stiffing the newcomer has worked pretty well. The county has been able to increase its annual spending 15 to 20 percent and governments have been able to maintain or reduce ad valorum tax rates. Ad valorum taxes are the money you pay on your homes and business real estate.
The impact fees are beginning to work and growth is starting to slow, and the trend will continue.
Because of that, the county won’t see its revenues increase as dramatically to increase services and the many new demands placed on commissioners.
Having the foresight to recognize the party won’t last forever, county board members commissioned a study to be overseen by the Collier County Economic Development Council.
Thursday of this past week, the commissioners were presented that study, conducted by a firm from Lansing Michigan called Anderson Economic Group.
One good thing that was mentioned by the firm was that most government bodies don’t take on these issues until it is too late to do something to prevent the severity of the problems ahead.
Now the scary part begins. The study showed that regular, sustainable taxes such as ad valorum taxes, sales and gas taxes, licenses and permit fees, franchise fees, etc., only provide 28 percent of the revenues of the county budget. That is the only reliable source of funding available to the commissioners. The rest comes in the form of impact fees, grants and things like that – not a very reliable funding source to count on for the future.
If we continue to raise and rely on impact fees, we’ve seen that a slowdown will occur. That means less revenue for the county. If that happens, the only way to make up those revenues is to increase property taxes.
The cost of the study was budgeted at $62,000 from the general revenue fund.
What does that mean? It means if you want to maintain the services you get now, you will either need to pay more in property taxes or drop the impact fees to encourage more growth so the party won’t end so soon. Let your commissioner know your preference.

A New Perspective – 9-9-2004: News Business

September 9, 2004

For over 10 years we’ve had a Tuesday date on this newspaper. Let me get back to that thought in a moment. Wouldn’t you know it, twice within a three-week period I am writing a column just as a hurricane is about to hit.
Sorry I dragged you through it last time, but since I’m not a deep thinker, you have to deal with my scattered random thoughts on this top spot for billing in this newspaper. We’d get someone else, but there is no one else willing to do this column for nothing.
And now… back to the story. We added a sports section in preparation for two new high schools within our coverage area of The Gazette. We’ve never really been able devote much time and space to sports, since most of this area’s students were split up between various high schools.
Since football games are played on Fridays, we quickly realized that if we kept the Tuesday print day, the football stories would be a week and a half old before they hit the newsstands.
So we made the big move and changed all our print deadlines in time to cover the big local Bowl Game, “Battle for the Gate,” set for Friday, Sept. 3.
The task of changing the print day required our staff to have the paper done by Friday, except for two sports pages. Over the weekend we would complete and send those final pages to the printer and The Gazette would hit the press first thing Monday with up-to-date football coverage.
Because of Labor Day, our regular printer couldn’t complete the job on that schedule so we searched the ink circuit and came up with another printer who could. Of course there was an increased cost, but we would meet our goal, make our readers roar with enthusiasm, and – voila – football sports would be born in this area with coverage by the community’s own newspaper.
The change would also affect the Everglades Echo in Everglades City as the new printer would also be taking on that publication.
Just as we were ready to take on the world, sell gobs of new subscriptions, and become hometown heroes, Hurricane Frances came along and fouled up all our plans. The big Bowl Game was canceled and rescheduled.
We followed the new print schedule anyway and because the game was rescheduled for Tuesday, you will now read about it over a week late. Makes for some good “hurricane language,” don’t you think?
However, even in this paper, we have some exciting sports news. You will find coverage of the Titans first-ever preseason football game on their home turf. We thank Riverside Bank and Sabrina Dulaney of Nationwide Insurance for sponsoring our “Athletes of the Week” for each of the new high schools.
The president of Riverside Bank stopped by last week and told how me the roof came off his home in Cape Coral. That bank is giving low and no interest loans to repair hurricane damage from Charley. They may have to do it again for Frances.
Make sure to make these businesses a part of your service. They have a hometown interest in this community and are showing it by providing space to give special attention to local students.

A New Perspective – 08-31-2004: Collier Schools

August 31, 2004

The Collier County School District is a very large tax-based institution in our county, which gets relatively little attention from most of us. They exist and play a major role in developing our community and its future.
The resignation of Superintendent Ben Marlin was a shock and a disappointment for many of us. Wherever he went, he brought a positive message of the future and dealt boldly with the difficult tasks that lay before him. We’ll never know the whole story behind his resignation, but some of it came out soon after with the confirmation that he has taken a consulting position with an educational firm.
It seems odd that a person of Marlin’s standing could be so rattled at the abuse the position takes. His early withdrawal also means he probably wasn’t the right person to complete the task to move things forward.
The sad part is it will be difficult to find the CEO-type of person needed for the position, who will want to come into this school district and subject themselves to considerable abuse. Word gets out in school circles and it won’t be pretty.
Many things will be left in limbo, many goals will not be addressed to as strongly, and the political hot seat will become even hotter.
The hotbed created in the district exists because most people, myself included, chose to put this essential part of local government on the back burner. We didn’t get involved in the process. We let the negative segment of the community dictate our direction and the unconstructive squeaky wheel got the grease.
One of the best things we can do now is to become active participants in the school system by showing our support. We should write letters of support for existing leaders in our school system and rally this community to become a welcome place for those interested in ensuring our children are taught properly. It is possible to be friendly as well as firm in seeing our educational system is moving in the right direction.
We need to be supportive of our school board members, who have implemented many good programs to improve our schools.
The business community frequently rallies itself regarding growth, health, voting, and tax-related issues, but they have been, for the most part, silent when it comes to our schools.
The news media, including us, have spent a good portion of coverage on the negative aspects of the district by highlighting improvements that need to be made rather than the progress and improvements that are being made.
The complaints are long and loud as to how students today are worse off academically, physically and emotionally and how parents just don’t participate in the process.
There is nothing new under the sun. The problems of the “youth of today” are the same things mentioned in commentaries of noted philosophers at the turn of the century and centuries before that.
Things only change when we take it upon ourselves to get involved in the process. Marlin’s departure is a wake-up call that it is time for us to take an active role in our school system. The effects and consequences of ignoring such a critical governmental body could be devastating as we move into the future.
How are you going to take part?

A New Perspective 7-06-04: Waterways

Golden Gate Gazette

July 6, 2004

The county is fighting to find ways to get more money to accomplish the many demands placed upon them. Rather than lumping the needs all together and setting the taxes to accomplish their objectives, County staff is attempting keep funding levels as they are and garner more money by setting up areas of strong demand into definable projects and asking additional funds be taxed separately for  the specific projects.
We were given the 20 year plan for stormwater management utility tax proposal.
In the list was a project called Natures Point. This area is in the River Reach neighborhood and was dredged at a cost of $96,000 earlier this year. The project had nothing to do with stormwater run off, but actually dredged out a boat dock area along the river that has silted up over time. The dock area was in front of the home owned by Naples Daily New Publisher Bob Burdick and couple of his neighbors.
We followed a long line of emails from the publisher to get staff to dredge his property. We also saw a commissioner’s email that expressed anger that staffs weren’t doing their job in delaying projects specifically related to this Natures Point project.
Dredging an individual property owner’s boat launch had never been done in the history of stormwater management work. An exception was made and it was done for the Publisher of the Naples Daily News. This need seemed to supercede most other flooding areas in the county.
Funds were available from another agency to help in the project. The project was called the Burnett property in emails because that is Bob Burdick’s wife’s name. These additional funds weren’t received because of a staff error. The additional funding source would be delayed, but the pressure got too strong to delay the dredging until additional outside funding came in the next year’s cycle. We paid for the whole thing out of stormwater managements coffers this year to take the heat off.
Was there a heavy hand of influence peddling going on? We don’t know. After questioning the reason for the personal dredging project from stormwater drainage funds, we now are asked have to have our conversations recorded by stormwater staff if we want to talk some more.
We do note that if the tax increase is passed for the stormwater utility, the Estates area will pay the same tax rate as the rest of the County and will receive very little benefit.
The Golden Gate City area was given a token amount of money for Australian Pine removal which they would have received anyway because of a grant that was received for the project.
County staff stated the priorities in funding stormwater projects will be determined politically. We see by the projects already funded that influence may be everything.
Commissioner Tom Henning is pushing to have stormwater needs taken care of by setting up special taxing districts to have neighborhoods take care of their own areas.
In the meantime, what other groups will apply the most political pressure to get their area done before those less organized or equipped to apply pressure. Need isn’t necessarily as big of a determining factor.

A New Perspective – 07-01-2004; Sheriff Department

July 1, 2004

Golden Gate Gazette

Every state selected two individuals to be memorialized in the National Statuary Hall of the U.S. Capitol in Washington DC. One of Florida’s individuals is Dr. John Gorrie, who is considered the father of air conditioning and refrigeration. His work changed Florida from a sweltering swamp to a highly sought place to live.
Prior to air-conditioning, Southwest Florida and the Everglades mostly attracted people who were trying to escape the law. It was the home of plume poachers, rum runners, and many legends of lawless renegades.
During the 1970s and ’80s, Southwest Florida became a hot spot for drug activity due to its remoteness and the willing assistance of those familiar with the backwaters of the 10,000 Islands.
For the most part, the crime was pretty tame and those who dealt in the illegal trades were self-respecting folks other than how they made their living. But violence infiltrated the drug trade – boats were burned, car-bombs exploded – and smuggling lost its allure because of a heavy squeeze by law enforcement. By the early 1990s, trafficking had slowed to a minor activity.
For many years, the Golden Gate Estates area was home to hermits and people wanting to just be left alone, without the “control” or services of government or law enforcement. Residents could pretty well do what they wanted, when they wanted, and everyone left everyone else alone.
As the Estates has become more urbanized, people are living closer and conflicting lifestyles are creating controversy. Residents are demanding more government services and a greater demand from law enforcement.
In the midst of this, Sheriff Don Hunter presented commissioners with a $139 million budget, some of which more fully addresses the increasing enforcement needs of Estates residents. He makes a pretty convincing case of why he needs more money to cater to this area, but is taking a beating from county leaders as to why he needs so much money to accomplish better law enforcement when he already is doing a stellar job.
While this argument is taking place in the public arena, a quadruple murder scene is discovered off Randall Boulevard, and low and behold a marijuana grow house is discovered at the home.
Within a few days, the Sheriff’s Office uncovers three more grow houses and the need for additional money for the Estates law enforcement is pretty well proven for him.
The kind of individual associated with modern day grow houses isn’t like the smugglers of the old days. There is big money to be made and these houses are attracting a much more dangerous clientele, oftentimes connected to organized crime that extend far beyond Collier County. The stakes are much higher and taking a life, often in a very brutal manner, is the way to make a point and a method to make sure profits continue.
If ever we wanted to see the sheriff’s budget expanded for more manpower for this community, this is the time. He has a plan to be more proactive in the Estates as the population grows so rapidly. The huge mass of land requires more deputies per capita because of its size and a more proactive, rather than reactive, approach to law enforcement.
As I said in last week’s column, Sheriff Hunter usually wins the budget battles with the county. During Tuesday’s forum, he convinced me that the budget request is sound.
If coastal commissioners want to chop the Sheriff’s budget, maybe the funds should come out of those commission districts to fund more enforcement for the Estates. Eastern Collier is demanding more, the Western folks are demanding less; it might be the easiest solution to present, or the best way to make a point.

A New Perspective 6-17-2004: Golden Gate Master Plan

Golden Gate Gazette

June 17, 2004

Three new commercial centers for the Golden Gate Estates, new commercial ventures for Golden Gate City, and discussion on commercial uses along Logan and Oakes boulevards.
These are a few of the topics discussed during recent meetings of the Golden Gate Area Master Plan Restudy Committee.
The Committee was formed by Collier County Commissioners, nearly a year ago, to address growth in the Golden Gate and Golden Gate Estates areas and to direct necessary changes to the Golden Gate Master Plan that governs that growth.
Originally adopted in 1991, the Master Plan is part of the county’s growth management plan and a road map the county and state use to determine what will or will not be allowed in the Golden Gate area.
Meeting on a monthly basis, the group began with a review of the existing Golden Gate Master Plan. Various planning representatives have addressed the group to discuss how changes to the Master Plan might impact their interests.
As the learning process turned into decision-making the frequency of the meetings has increased to twice a month, the second and fourth Wednesday of the month. Meetings are held from 4-7 p.m. and are open to the public.
The group began the decision making process with a broad idea of goals, meeting each week to narrow those ideas down and try to attach language for the plan as they proceed.
After narrowing the ideas down further, a survey of the community with will address commercial activity center zones proposed on Golden Gate Blvd. near the intersections of 23rd and 21st streets, Wilson Blvd., and Everglades Blvd. A final commercial site is proposed for Everglades Blvd and Immokalee Rd.

 

A New Perspective 3-04-04: Jesse Hardy Property Rights Fight

Golden Gate Gazette

March 4, 2004

Jesse Hardy’s fight to keep his 160 acres in the Southern Golden Gate Estates will return to Tallahassee, Apr. 13, for a final hearing before the Florida Cabinet.
“It’s possible the Cabinet could defer it again, but we’re confident they will approve eminent domain,” says Kathalyn Gaither, land acquisition public information officer for the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).
Located in what is called the “Hole in the Donut,” the property is part of the state’s 55,000-acre buy-out to restore natural water flows to the Southern Golden Gate Estates (SGGE), once slated for development.
Hardy has owned the property for 28 years. He is the last of thousands of individual property owners whose land was targeted for the Picayune Strand State Forest. What began as a willing seller program turned into condemnation when the project was tied to the $100 million Everglades water restoration project in the late 1990s.
If the state condemns Hardy’s land, it will be the first time in Florida history that a homesteaded property has been taken for environmental purposes.
Gaither says if Hardy does not take the $1.5 million offer that’s on the table, the selling price will go back to the state’s original offer of $909,158 if the Cabinet and Governor approve eminent domain.
The 67-year-old Florida native says he doesn’t care – the property is not for sale at any price. A disabled Navy SEAL who has never lived an easy life, he says he’s not interested in a condo on the beach or living in an urban setting.
“It’s my home and it means more to me than the money. If it (condemnation) was for something useful to the public health and well-being, like a school, a fire station, or a hospital, I would move with no problem,” he says.
Although he is skeptical of the success of portions of the rehydration plan, Hardy maintains he supports the project. He says his land is not necessary to the restoration project and he will not be adversely affected by it.
“I’m not against any of the environmentalists’ work to rehydrate the Southern Golden Gate Estates,” he says. “I’m all for it. I just want to keep my home.”
Gaither says Hardy’s land is necessary to the project.
“The South Florida Water Management District has conducted modeling that shows that even if there is no flooding on his property, there will be no roads and there will be demolition all around him, posing safety concerns,” she says.
Hardy, who once sold real estate for Golden Gate Estates’ developer Gulf American Corporation (GAC), homesteaded his rustic property in 1976. With the exception of an excavation pond underway, the property looks very much the same today as it did 28 years ago.
Using propane and a gas-powered generator, he lives in a tiny wood frame home with a friend he took in and her handicapped eight-year-old son.
“Living here is what has kept me going,” he says. “It’s my home. I’m too old to go anywhere else.”
Hardy continues to hold out. One year ago, the governor and Cabinet were asked to initiate condemnation proceedings on his property. Instead, they instructed DEP land acquisition agents to continue to try to negotiate a deal.
Hardy and Gaither both agreed that no progress has been made toward a sale over the past year.
“If I let them get away with it, and they take my home for environmental reasons, then every homeowner in the state of Florida will be in jeopardy,” he says. “There’s nothing to restore on my land – nothing but pine and Sabal palm. It’s my home – it’s just that simple – and I won’t give it up. I will fight to the very end. I will spend every nickel I’ve got and can get to fight this.”
Hardy will not be attending the hearing in Tallahassee, but will be represented by his attorney. He says it is too emotional of an issue for him. He is also undergoing cancer treatment after having been diagnosed with the disease in November.
He is hopeful area residents will show their support by writing letters asking the governor not to grant the DEP eminent domain and allow him to keep his land.
Estates resident Cindy Kemp, founding member of the Property Rights Action Committee (PRAC), says the group fully backs Hardy. The group created and is distributing brochures on his plight and is promoting his cause through a song, “The Ballad of Jesse Hardy,” written by a friend of Hardy and sung by Estates resident Bill Lhota.
“It’s not right what they’re doing to Jesse,” she says. “We’re hoping residents will understand how this ultimately affects them and their Constitutional rights.”
Hardy hired an engineer to complete a study that shows the elevation of his property at 12 feet. At that height, he says his property will never be affected by the restoration project and he doesn’t understand why the state is insisting on buying him out.
Nearly three years ago, Collier County gave Hardy the go-ahead to build the first of four proposed 20-acre ponds to create a fish farm, which he would like to one day open to the public for recreational fishing.
Several environmental groups including the Florida Wildlife Federation and the Collier County Audubon Society opposed the concept, but agreed to support the construction of one 20-acre pond. Any future excavation will have to be re-approved by the county this spring.
In that time, Hardy says he has dug about seven of the 20 acres of the pond. He has also completed and stocked a smaller pond, which he uses to gauge water quality and predator issues. Fill from excavation of the ponds has been purchased by the county for road building.
Hardy says his dream is to one day open his piece of paradise up to the public to fish the ponds and enjoy what he has loved for 27 years.
DEP officials say that dream is unlikely. Gaither says once eminent domain is approved, it will take six months to a year to find Hardy a place to live.
“I’ve already got a place to live,” Hardy says. “They can look all they want – they’ll never find another place like this. It’s my home and there’s no other place like it.”

To contact the governor, email jeb.bush@myflorida.com, write 400 South Monroe Street, Tallahassee, FL 32399-0001, call 850-488-4441 or fax 850-487-0801.

A New Perspective 6-04-02: No More ATV’s at Prairie

Golden Gate Gazette

March 4, 2002

Bad Luck Prairie may be living up to its name for area ATV and swamp buggy users. As of Memorial Day weekend, over the road vehicles (ORVs) will no longer be allowed in the Prairie, which is part of the Picayune State Forest in the Southern Golden Gate Estates.
For years, the site has been the hub of Collier County ATV activity and Division of Foresty (DOF) officials say that use has taken a toll on the environment.
“We’re not trying to take away anyone’s fun,” says DOF Caloosahatchee District Manager Hank Graham. “We are charged with management of the property and we have to start gaining control of the activities within the forest.”
Lifelong resident Sarah Harrelson was surprised and disappointed at the news.
“There’s no other place to go,” she said. “Around here, we can’t even ride on the sidewalk without getting a ticket.”
She says the size of the Prairie provided enough room for everyone to enjoy ATVing.
“It was a perfect place,” she says. “We used to go out there every weekend for something to do. Everybody pretty much knows everybody out there. We heard a couple years ago they were going to shut it down but then they never did.”
First designated a state forest in 1995, the Picayune includes the 53,000 acres of Southern Golden Gate Estates and the agricultural areas within the South Blocks known as the “hole of the doughnut” and the “toe of the boot” and about 23,000 acres of Southern Belle Meade.
Graham says DOF is not shutting down or taking away anything from ORV users.
“It never has been legal,” he says of the ATV use. “We are now starting to enforce the rules that apply to the Picayune and all state forests.”
Similar to regulations in place in the Big Cypress Preserve, only licensed vehicles will be allowed on designated roads. Since ORVs cannot be licensed and there are no designated roads in Bad Luck Prairie, the area will be virtually closed to all vehicles.
Collier County sheriff’s officials use the same regulations to keep ATVs off public roadways and easements, leaving riders few areas outside of their own property to ride the vehicles.
Graham said the DOF did not start enforcing the law sooner, because the state did not own enough of the property and there was no enforcement agency in place.
He said the state now owns 90 percent of the property and the Department of Agriculture has assigned an officer to police the Forest. Graham admitted he didn’t envy the job, which began Memorial Day weekend.
“The law enforcement officer has been advising (users) that things were fixing to change,” Graham said. “The news was not poorly received. Of course they weren’t happy about it. This was their playground and we’re telling them they can’t play there anymore.”
For now, ATV users who show up at the Prairie or are found riding in the area will be told to load up and leave. After July 4, tickets with monetary fines of around $50 will be issued by enforcement officers.
Graham says there is just no arguing that the prolonged ATV use has caused considerable damage, causing soil to become compacted and altering drainage in the Prairie. He says the noise has also affected wildlife.
“It stresses the critters out,” he says. “This is Type 1 (prime) panther habitat.”
According to Graham, litter and dumping problems have also plagued the area.
“We went in there two years ago, brought in manpower and cleared out the Blocks,” he says. “Now it looks as if we’d never been there, that’s how serious a problem it is.”
One year ago, the DOF held a public meeting to discuss allowed uses in the Picayune. About 70 people attended the meeting, requesting a variety of uses from motorized miniature airplanes to public ATV trails.
The current uses include hiking, horseback riding, primitive camping, leashed pets and picnicking.
Graham says another public meeting will be held in 2003 to reassess public uses in the Forest.
“It’s something we will evaluate,” he says of the possibility of establishing future public ATV trails in the Prairie, “But the rules do not allow for us to turn our backs and allow the land to be abused.”
Graham says agricultural law enforcement officers are planning to “keep it friendly” when it comes to informing ATV and swampbuggy users of the rules.
“I don’t envision us chasing down these ATV users,” he says. “We’re not to that point yet, not until after the Fourth of July.”

A New Perspective 4-24-01: Natural Resources

Golden Gate Gazette

April 24, 2001

“Balancing environmental protection and property rights,” was how Collier County District 5 Commissioner Jim Coletta characterized his vision for penning new development practices for rural Collier County at a natural resources workshop in commission chambers, Apr. 17.
The meeting featured a presentation on Collier County’s natural environment by county natural resources director Bill Lorenz and outlined what steps the county is taking in order to fulfill the requirements of Governor Jeb Bush’s Final Order, imposed in 1999.
That decision came about after seven amendments to Collier County’s comprehensive plan in 1996 were found not in compliance by the Florida Department of Community Affairs (DCA).
The Final Order requires the county to improve natural resource protection and curb urban sprawl. Until those protections are in place the rural agricultural lands east of the one mile urban boundary are under a building moratorium.
Lorenz explained the most “pressing issues” for the county are devising amendments to better protect wetlands – which make up about 70 percent of the county — and preserve habitat for listed species.
District 3 Commissioner Tom Henning noted that Pelican Bay was a wetland before it was filled and developed.
“How far do we want to go to restore wetlands?” he asked.
Commissioner Pam Mac’Kie said she thought the county should try to preserve wetlands systems that are relatively intact, but not concentrate on isolated and urban wetlands.
“I’d rather give up some of those isolated cypress heads in exchange for land way out that is still functioning,” she said.
District 1 Commissioner Donna Fiala, whose daughter lives in the rural Estates, asked if Northern Golden Gate Estates (NGGE) was being considered for wetlands restoration.
Lorenz said county staff has developed NGGE maps of wetland sloughs present before the area was platted and canals dug. He said some of the areas show “some degree of potential” for restoration and preservation.
He said some area environmental groups and staff had been talking about wetland restoration possibilities that could provide firebreaks, passive recreation and wildlife corridors.
“This could be a benefit for some of the people in Golden Gate Estates,” he said.
Lorenz said 20 to 25 percent of NGGE properties involve wetlands and require Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) permits for development. Destruction of wetlands property on those sites requires mitigation. If some areas in the Estates could be sanctioned as receiving areas for that mitigation, wetlands could be preserved.
Coletta said he saw healthy bird and animal populations in rural Collier County as indicators of a healthy place for residents.
“Wildlife is a measuring stick to see how safe the environment is for ourselves,” he noted.
Henning proposed using road-building mitigation requirements to buy land for preservation in Collier County. He said the county is required to spend $1 million in wetlands impacts for the Livingston Road extension alone. Since there is no state-recognized mitigation bank in Collier County, the money is all going to benefit preservation in Collier County.
Some residents have questioned that if 70 percent of the county is already in some form of preserve, park, refuge or state forest, isn’t that enough to preserve?
Lorenz says Collier County is blessed with some of the state’s and even the country’s most diverse and endangered plants and animals, requiring a higher level of preservation according to federal and state laws.
He said preserving what’s left of Collier County’s wetlands – close to 70 percent of the county – also benefits residents. Maintaining wetlands helps lessen the effects of flooding during the rainy season, improves water quality, insures more available water for human use and protects residents from fire, he said
In addition, Lorenz said preserving habitat for wildlife – which means protecting some upland land areas — contributes to recreational opportunities, helps insure the economic health of the community since tourism is a large part of the economy and maintains the quality o life.
Staff and commissioners discussed ways to keep development out of the rural areas, including giving developers density transfers to the urban area, clustering homes in some areas to avoid impacting wetlands and productive upland habitat and using tax dollars to buy rural lands.
“We should ask the development community what they want because density might not be it,” Mac’Kie said. “There must be something they’re willing to trade.”
She noted that developers weren’t using the four units per acre allowed in the urban area. She said the average density was about 2.4 units per acre.
Land use attorney Bruce Anderson said he did not believe transferring development rights from the rural to the urban area would work, implying there was no demand. He suggested transferring from one part of the rural area to another.
He urged the county to start setting aside money for conservation in their budget as the most effective way to curb development in certain areas.
“The urban boundary was not intended to be put in place forever,” Anderson said, criticizing language in the recent community character plan. The plan suggests keeping urban and suburban type development within the urban boundary until the 80,000 permitted but undeveloped units are built there.
By June 22, 2002, the county must have the necessary comprehensive plan amendments in effect to carry out the Final Order.
Requirements of the Governor’s Final Order to the county include:
• identifying and proposing measures to protect prime agricultural areas to prevent the premature conversion of agricultural lands to other uses;
• directing incompatible uses away from wetlands and upland habitat in order to protect water quality and quantity and maintain the natural water regime and protect listed animals, plants and their habitats; and
• encouraging development that utilizes creative land use planning techniques which may better serve to protect environmentally sensitive areas, maintain the economic viability of agriculture and provide for the cost-efficient delivery of public facilities and services.

A New Perspective 4-17-01: Community Character

Golden Gate Gazette

April 17, 2001

It appears Collier County’s traditional style of sprawling development —  large gated communities, wide-swaled arterial roads and strip malls fronted with giant asphalt parking lots — could be winding down in Collier County.
After a year-long community character study involving world-renowned professional planners and a broad-based committee of citizens, developers, environmentalists and county planning staff, county commissioners unanimously endorsed a new vision for designing growth at their April 10 meeting.
The four-page resolution addresses mobility, greenspace and architectural design. It’s objectives call for balancing community character with ease of movement, keeping urban and suburban-style growth within the urban line (one mile east of Collier Boulevard) and linking neighborhoods throughout the county through a network of parks, bike lanes, trails and flow-ways.
Implementation is to take place through incorporation in the county’s comprehensive plan, land development code and Golden Gate Master Plan.
“Growth, change and development have been threatening the character of the community,” Victor Dover, the lead private planner for the $500,000-project, told attendants at the commission meeting. “As this plan is implemented, sprawl will recede and not dominate talk in the community.”
Dover said some of the hallmarks of the plan include: reintroducing walkable traditional neighborhoods with homes and commercial centers; balancing road networks by improving arterial roads and creating a secondary network of smaller roads that link neighborhoods; and making better use of remaining vacant acreage within the urban boundary before allowing new development to creep into the countryside.
“There’s lots of room to grow Collier County without paving the Everglades,” he noted.
“Thinking outside the box,” was the way District 1 Commissioner Donna Fiala referred to “Toward Better Places,” the planning booklet developed by Shawn Seaman, Dover, Kohl and Partners Town Planning.
Citizen committee Chairman Jim Rideout told meeting attendants the goal of the plan is to address the concerns of Collier’s citizens which surfaced during the FoCOS (The Future of Collier Created by Us) meetings five years ago. Citizens polled at town hall meetings around the county voted growth and environmental preservation their two biggest concerns.
“This is an outgrowth of what the community told us,” Rideout said. “We’ve now come to the hard part. I don’t really know if there is the political will to implement this.”
Rideout blamed two philosophies in the county he said were not helping solve Collier’s planning woes: those who say you can stop people from moving here and those who say you don’t have to spend any money to insure the area’s quality of life.
Representatives of local environmental organizations, traditionally at odds often with county planning and development decisions, praised the Dover-Kohl plan for doing a better job to protect the environment and the health of county residents.
“I’m very, very impressed,” Brad Cornell of the Collier County Audubon Society said. “This is an opportunity for all of us to take the bull by the horns and look at what happens comprehensively. We see the health of wildlife connected to the health of humans.”
Conservancy of Southwest Florida President Kathy Prosser told commissioners the “area’s livability continues to be eroded by sprawl.”
She lauded the smart growth techniques described in the Dover Kohl plan, including guidelines that regulate golf course development outside the urban boundary.
To help move the county toward preservation of flow-ways in the rural area, including Golden Gate Estates, she said the Conservancy would be asking for a land acquisition referendum on the next county ballot which would allow citizens to tax themselves to buy natural lands.
One objective of the plan, “The Future of the Future Land Use Map, Clustering: Stealth Sprawl or Rural Preservation?” was narrowly endorsed by the community committee, but taken out by county staff. It was feared the whole plan might fail after some members of the development community showed their displeasure, according to county staff.
It was re-titled as Technical Memorandum 3 and filed on Dover Kohl’s website but was not included on the county’s own planning website.
Commissioner Fiala said she wouldn’t have even known about the objective to keep urban development west of the urban boundary if a news reporter had not called her and asked her opinion.
She said she was “troubled” by the deletion.
Commissioners Pam Mac’Kie and Jim Coletta also expressed surprise that the staff’s presentation had not included an explanation on the change.
“I am confounded to know about why that (language) would be inappropriate,” Mac’Kie told staff. “I want to understand why that had to come out?”
The intent of the deleted objective reads: “New suburban and urban development should be kept within the current boundary rather than being allowed to creep further into the countryside. Redevelopment and vacant acreage inside the urban boundary should be used to accommodate most anticipated growth.”
County staff and development attorney Bruce Anderson defended the deletion at the commission meeting. They said the objective addresses the rural fringe area (Northern Belle Meade and agricultural land off of Immokalee Road). It is already under study by a county assessment committee in order to come up with development standards in compliance with the Governor’s final order to improve protections for natural resources on Collier County’s rural lands. If the rural fringe committee came up with different criteria for development outside the urban boundary than the rural fringe committee, developers might feel an infringement of private property rights.
Mac’Kie said she understood how the entire objective on sprawl and clustering houses around golf courses might result in future litigation if discrepancies occurred between two plans mapping development for the same area. However, she said she thought the intent of the objective was a basic county goal.
The intent of the objective was put back in the plan and endorsed by the commissioners after County Attorney David Wiegold assured them there was no liability with that language.
 “I would be incorrect if I told you that everyone agreed with the report or if I told you that everyone agreed with what wasn’t in the report,” Rideout said.
 Set in motion by county commissioner support, the biggest hurdle will be whether the community is willing to make the financial and
 “Character-rich communities are more valuable
He said large gated communities are “at the root of your traffic problems.”