Responsible Development: Residents feel we are at a tipping point.
The highest rated goal for our City, by you, the Residents, is:
Preserve Naples’ distinctive small town character and culture. Ninety three percent of you feel this is of the highest importance for our City and its elected officials.
Former Naples Elected Officials acknowledge that; over the past ten years they have passed ordinances making our building codes conditionally “flexible”; doing this to stimulate development across the City. This purposeful policy has served the interest of the private developers, less so the interest of residents. This posture and the enabling City Council votes, resulted in high impact developments that exceeded density standards, height limitations, increased lot coverage and did not conform to sensible storm water management practices. This push for intense redevelopment has been unrelenting, and has proceeded without sufficient regard for its’ impact on our town or the environment.
At its core our City has a good Comprehensive Plan to guide development to a sensible level that will revitalize our City while preserving our small town character. Healthy development is good for Naples. Healthy development does not need a variance or a deviation or a conditional use approval. It only needs to be environmentally mindful.
We should be good stewards of our town, our water and our environment. Our former City Council has treated overdevelopment and the environment as separate issues. They are not separate; they are intricately intertwined. It is with this sense of stewardship that is the prism through which future redevelopment must be evaluated. This requires a new mind set, fresh thinking and new faces on City Council. The risk of inaction is too great.
I will offer some positive recommendations that protect the features of Naples that make it so unique. With your support we can restore a more equitable balance of the residents’ interests, the environment and code conforming redevelopment.
I hear your voice, YOU WILL BE HEARD!