While the amendments have been years in the making and have garnered support from a majority of landowners and environmental groups, they still face organized opposition, namely from The Conservancy of Southwest Florida, which has raised a multitude of concerns about the revisions.
One of the Conservancy s biggest concerns is that the changes won t go far enough to steer development away from primary or essential habitat for panthers, in part due to the old data the county uses to determine where it s located. We are very disappointed in the decision by the Planning Commission to recommend approval of the RLSA amendments, said April Olson, a senior environmental planning specialist with the Conservancy, in an email.
Developer, environmental groups work out compromises over rural villages
Naples Daily News
Between sometimes contentious and hours-long public meetings, developers planning rural villages in eastern Collier County and a handful of environmental groups negotiated further protections for land and wildlife.
Collier Enterprises is moving plans through the county for three villages in environmentally sensitive lands in the county s 185,000-acre Rural Land Stewardship Area.
Plans for the villages Rivergrass, Longwater and Bellmar spurred debate from groups concerned the development would further imperil wildlife habitat and sensitive ecosystems.
While some groups, such as the Conservancy of Southwest Florida, oppose the villages and have even filed a lawsuit over Rivergrass, others sat down with the developer to work out some compromises.
Last-minute changes, interpretations and emotions are at the center of numerous projects from one of the most monumental weeks in Collier development history.
For months and longer, government officials, citizens and advisory committees had all been scrutinizing plans for the Vanderbilt Beach area s One Naples luxury towers that County Commissioner Penny Taylor had termed as the most controversial (issue) in many, many years.
But much of that effort and a big part of the county staff s planned presentation at Monday s public hearing became largely worthless when Stock Development blindsided many involved with significant alterations as the gathering began. There were several changes, (a) lot of changes, County Planning Manager Ray Bellows said later in the week.
Collier County Commission approves luxury project without public review of last-minute changes naplesnews.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from naplesnews.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Naples land use attorney Rich Yovanovich, who represents Collier Enterprises, objected to the planning commission s discussions about some of the points in and objections to the town agreement, arguing that it was not officially on the table for a public hearing.
He urged the commission to move forward with its advertised hearings as planned for two of the three villages that would be melded together with the town.
The county has already green-lighted one of those villages, known as Rivergrass.
The commission agreed to follow the order of its agenda and not to discuss the town agreement any further before separately hearing and voting on the remaining petitions by Collier Enterprises.