Changes to rural growth plan advanced by Collier County commissioners

Collier County commissioners on Tuesday gave staff the green light to move forward with revisions to a growth plan for development east of Collier Boulevard.

Commissioners unanimously voted to allow county planners to draft amendments to the Rural Fringe Mixed Use District — 77,000 acres of largely undeveloped land on the edges of Golden Gate Estates. The district is where planners expect to see a large chunk of the county's projected population boom, based on feedback from the public and the board at past workshops.

Some of the potential changes relate to how many units per acre could be built in proposed rural villages where residents could have places to eat and work near where they live to reduce traffic congestion.

To county staff, increasing the maximum density in the village centers from three units per acre to up to seven units per acre would be preferred because it would allow for a mix of housing options, said planning and zoning director Mike Bosi.

“When you’ve got that seven units per acre, it’s impossible to have those be a monolithic single-family development,” Bosi said after the vote.  “Meaning you’re going to have some condos, you’re going to have some apartments, you’re going to have some housing diversity.

"And that housing diversity is specifically tied to the issue of housing affordability.”

More Collier news:Collier County approves $1.2 billion budget, up 2 percent, keeps tax rate steady

More:Collier commissioners reject proposed tax to fix rural roads

The higher densities also would help support the commercial square footage that the county is seeking to have in those village centers, Bosi added.

“What it also does is it helps create a sense of place,” he said.

One unit per acre would be tantamount to a golf course community, while six units per acre would be comparable to downtown Naples' density, according to a county staff presentation.

For comparison, staff will provide commissioners with options of up to four units per acre and seven units per acre, Bosi said.

“We think seven (units per acre) works the best,” he said. “We think seven’s the most sustainable.” 

Another proposed tweak to the plan would allow employment centers — such as medical manufacturing or technology businesses — to stand alone and not be specifically tied to any proposed village centers, Bosi said.

“Outside of villages, we’re saying, in the right location, certain criteria, employment centers could be developed,” he said, adding that the employment centers would be tied to job creation criteria.

After the amendments are drafted, they will go before the county's Planning Commission and then back before county commissioners. Eventually, the planned changes still would have to be submitted to the state, which then would kick them back to the planning board and county commissioners for another round of votes.

Bosi said he expects the amendments to go before the Planning Commission in January or February.

More:Stormwater fee plan put off a year after Collier residents oppose it at hearing

More:Collier, Lee officials increase cybersecurity ahead of midterm elections

Though commissioners unanimously voted to move forward, Commissioner Penny Taylor said after the meeting she still had concerns about some of the proposed maximum densities. 

She said she wants to evaluate how individual projects fit into “the big picture.”

“I want increased density approved by project," Taylor said. "You know, the project will justify it. Not just blatantly giving it to them.”

She said she nonetheless voted to move ahead with drafting the amendments to allow the process to continue to play out.

“We are in the planning process and there are several bites at this apple,” Taylor said. “And the Planning Commission is going to look at those issues also.”

The origins of the rural fringe district can be traced to the 1990s after the state sued the county for not doing enough to regulate sprawl. 

A zoning program allows property owners to sell their rights to build on land in the rural fringe district that is set  aside as preserve. Developers buy up those rights to build more on land designated for development. 

The trade-off is that wetlands and wildlife habitat are saved from becoming a sprawling suburb, while development is pushed toward land closest to major roads, such as acreage east of Collier Boulevard along a portion of U.S. 41 East.

More:Collier County land preservation program moving too slowly for some conservationists

More:Collier County sets tentative property tax rate as values rise to $88.3B

The program allows developers to build rural villages if they buy up enough development rights. 

Environmental advocacy groups have been following the process closely over the years. 

April Olson, senior environmental planning specialist for the Conservancy of Southwest Florida, praised county staff before Tuesday's vote for its “hard work”, but added that the organization had concerns about some of the revisions.

“It’s unclear if some of the recommendations have been sufficiently vetted as to be appropriate for moving forward to the amendment drafting stage,” she told commissioners.

She suggested to include a recap of the proposed revisions in an October workshop before authorizing amendment language.

“You have not discussed these recommendations for over a year,” she said.

Brad Cornell, Southwest Florida policy associate for Audubon of the Western Everglades, said the group supports many of the proposed changes, but not all of them.  

“These revisions have been in the works for years, now, and AWE clearly sees a need to especially resolve the conservation land conveyance problem where no agency has been willing to hold and manage the conservation benefits of RFMUD,” Cornell said in an email.

In other business Tuesday, commissioners voted unanimously to extend contracts for County Manager Leo Ochs and County Attorney Jeffrey Klatzkow until September 2021.