Ave Maria Development Seeking Changes to Town Development Plans
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Published on Monday, 18 August 2014 20:37
Ave Maria developers are asking Collier County to approve changes to the town plans that will further consolidate commercial development efforts near Arthrex on Oil Well Rd. as well as eliminating requirements for affordable housing and requiring sidewalks on only one side of the street in residential neighborhoods.
The proposals are scheduled to be heard at a public hearing of the Collier County Planning Commission at 9 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 4 at the county offices in Naples. Homeowners in Ave Maria were notified of the hearing in a letter received over the weekend that left many puzzled as to what the actual nature of the changes would be.
Collier County principal planner Kay Deselem said that an informational meeting was not required. In response to a flood of questions from residents, however, Ave Maria Development has scheduled a meeting with residents Thursday, Aug. 21, at 5 p.m. in the Ave Maria Master Association offices to answer questions.
The developers are proposing changes in two main areas.
They want several modifications to the the town plan specifically to:
- Add an additional 155 acres to the development area on Oil Well Rd. near Arthrex by changing the classification of 155 acres now allocated to residential neighborhoods. At the same time, about 145 acres now designated as commercial, near Camp Keais Rd. and at the Park of Commerce, would become residential. Those changes can be seen in the two maps viewable as PDFs by clicking here for the current plan and here for the proposed plan (pictured above).
- Add 600,000 square feet of light industrial/warehouse space to the development area on Oil Well Rd. Ms. Deselem in the planning department said she believed the change was being requested for possible future development and not for a specific project at this time.
- Require that residential neighborhoods have sidewalks on only one side of the street instead of both sides as currently stipulated.
- Approve an unspecified number of residential lots that would be higher-density "zero lot line development" in which houses are closer together, as they are in the newly-announced Coquina area of Maple Ridge.
- Change the designation of 52 acres in the current Park of Commerce area to residential, for Coquina.
In addition to those modifications, the developers also are seeking to have rescinded one of the documents specifying some details of future development -- the Development of Regional Impact (DRI) which supplements the provisions of the Stewardship Receiving Area (SRA) document that established Ave Maria.
The DRI, which would expire in 2020, was required at the time Ave Maria was created but Ms. Deselem said that it would no longer be required of a development like Ave Maria because of a change in Florida legislation and the developers are seeking to have it rescinded. Such a move must be approved by the county government.
The SRA sets out the Master Plan for Ave Maria Development, but the DRI goes further in listing specific requirements such as land for public schools, affordable housing, and land for public safety buildings.
Ms. Deselem said that the main effect of rescinding the DRI, if approved by the county, is that developers would no longer be required to construct 1,900 units of affordable housing.
Some other provisions of the DRI would remain in a separate document, Ms. Deselem said, including requirements for land for a public high school, space for public safety buildings, and the construction of a plaque commemorating the Second Seminole War.
The Ave Herald sought further comment from Barron Collier vice president David Genson, who is the developers' representative to the Ave Maria Stewardship Community District, but he had not responded at the time this article was written.
Click here for a PDF copy of the letter that was sent to residents.
