Collier County commission candidates talk population growth at forum

Candidates for Collier County commission talked about ways to prepare for population growth during a forum Wednesday night.

Two seats on the five-member commission are up for grabs in November. Democrat Annisa Karim faces Republican Burt Saunders in the race for District 3, which spans Golden Gate and parts of East Naples and North Naples along the Interstate 75 corridor. In District 5, which covers Golden Gate Estates, Immokalee and Everglades City, Republican Bill McDaniel is running against Democrat Tamara Paquette.

Saunders and Karim both said during the forum hosted by the Naples Daily News they will bring back a referendum asking voters if they want to re-institute Conservation Collier, a voluntary tax used to buy up pockets of preserve land throughout the county. Both said they oppose fracking and other alternative oil drilling methods in Southwest Florida.

Live video, chat: Collier County Commission candidate forum

The two differed sharply on how they would attract and deal with expanding businesses.

Karim said commissioners made a mistake this week when they approved expansion plans for Arthrex, a medical device manufacturer headquartered in North Naples. The expansion allows the company to build an office tower 122 feet high and will close off a portion of Creekside Boulevard to make room for the company’s growing campus.

“We are playing favorites for the big guys,” Karim said. “The same day commissioners gave Arthrex the waivers it asked for, they took away parking reductions from a small business off Vanderbilt Beach. It’s the job of county government to protect all of its people. It can’t be unfair.”

Karim said she would not support the county, which has a relatively modest business expansion and relocation program for a county of its size, giving out financial incentives to lure companies.

“We can’t handpick businesses,” Karim said. “If we’re doing our jobs correctly, businesses will come. If we make sure the environment is strong, if we make sure our school system is one of the top systems in the state, businesses will come. Having a small group of people handpick certain businesses is totally unfair.”

Saunders said commissioners were right to allow Arthrex to build its expansion.

“This is the type of development that needs to occur here,” Saunders said.

The county needs to be able to offer financial incentives to business that want to relocate or expand in order to compete with cities and municipalities across the country, he said.

“If they are properly vetted and can help the county’s economy, I will support offering incentives to compete,” Saunders said.

In the District 5 debate, Paquette repeatedly attacked McDaniel for originally filing papers to run for District 3 commissioner, saying he is only running to represent District 5 because it looked like the easier race.

She said she wouldn’t support expanding roads into or out of Immokalee if it meant the county or state would need to use eminent domain.

Paquette said she would oppose adding a new interchange at Interstate 75.

The county should slow down the development of Rural Lands West, she said, until it can do more studies on the potential impact to wildlife and panther habitat. The planned project will build 10,000 homes on 4,000 acres just east of Golden Gate Estates.

“The idea that this growth is inevitable growth is misnomer,” Paquette said. “This growth doesn’t have to happen. I know real estate agents want it to happen because it will let them make more money out there. What scares me is the effect on prime habitat and our water supply. If they decide to bring in 300,000 people, everybody in the coastal area is going to need a desalination plan.”

McDaniel, who lives near the Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, said he has been a resident of District 5 for 17 years.

He said he wants to expand roads into and out of Immokalee, including supporting state plans to widen State Road 82 and State Road 29, to encourage more business in Immokalee.

A new interchange at I-75 needs to be built to provide an evacuation route for residents of the Estates, McDaniel said.

The county has strong growth plans for the eastern portion of the county, he said. Those plans include where Rural Lands West will be built and require developers to set aside thousands of acres of preserve land in order to build.

County staff and residents have spent an inordinate amount of time on growth plans like the Rural Land Stewardship Area (RLSA) that covers much of the land surrounding Immokalee, McDaniel said.

“I spent two years of my life helping with the RLSA,” he said. “Billions of dollars of environmental land has been saved by allowing these transfer of development credits. More than 40,000 acres of agricultural land surrounding Immokalee has been preserved.”

McDaniel said he will defend property rights of landowners, while encouraging them to set aside environmentally sensitive land through voluntary development transfer programs.

“When you hear that 300,000 to 400,000 people are coming it sounds enormous,” McDaniel said. “But that will be over another 40 or 50 years. It’s necessary to plan for this and incentivize developers to start that development in western areas where we already have infrastructure in place.”