Collier planning board supports 205-unit apartment development, off Immokalee Road

Despite neighborhood opposition, Collier County's planning board is supporting a developer's request to build more rental apartments in North Naples.

The apartments are planned off a busy stretch of Immokalee Road, east of Collier Boulevard.

The request is to build 205 apartments, on a roughly 24-acre site, with 30% of them set aside for rent-restricted workforce housing – and targeted at essential workers, from teachers and police officers to nurses and firefighters.

At a hearing Thursday, the planning board voted unanimously to recommend approval to county commissioners, who will make the final decision.

Opposition is coming from Valencia Trails, a 55-plus community, next door. A community-driven petition against the apartments has garnered nearly 650 signatures, with traffic top of mind.

Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle.

The now-vacant site – at the southwest corner of Immokalee Road and Catawba Street – is already approved for a mixed-use planned unit development.

The applicant seeks zoning changes, along with an amendment to the county's Growth Management Plan that's necessary to achieve those changes.

The planning board saw the proposed project as more beneficial than detrimental to neighbors, and to the greater community. It would result in less traffic than what can be built on the property today.

Since filing the initial application the developer has made a number of revisions to try to ease neighborhood concerns, including reducing density, and increasing setbacks.

The apartments would replace the for-sale townhomes once envisioned for the site.

Those homes were approved to be "100% affordable."

However, they turned out not to be economically feasible, due to unforeseen changes in market conditions, including increases in construction costs and interest rates, Rich Yovanovich, the applicant's land use attorney, told the planning commission.

"There were no market rate units in that project," he said, which could have helped to subsidize the cost of building the affordable housing.

That project would have been capped at 129 homes. Those homes were committed to households making 100% to 120% of the area's median income.

The county's median income now tops $100,000 for a family of four, with a growing divide between the rich and the poor.

If approved, the requested zoning changes would increase the maximum number of residential units allowed by 76.

Initially, the developer asked for a total of 249 apartments, but then agreed to 205, in a compromise with county staff.

To allow for the higher residential density, the developer has agreed to:

With the PUD changes, the amount of traffic generated by the development is estimated to be far less. That made it more acceptable to the planning commission, and to county staff, which has also recommended approval.

During peak hours, the revised cap would be 226 new two-way vehicle trips in the morning and 267 in the evening. That compares to 463 and 467, respectively, for what the county approved in 2021.

While the new project would provide less affordable housing than the original one, county staff determined there would be a benefit to having market-rate apartments in the area, which would still offer something more attainable than buying a home.

More like this:City advances efforts to purchase apartments for workforce housing in Naples

And:City explores purchase of Stillwater Cove apartments in Naples to provide workforce housing

The developer has committed to set aside 15% of the units for those making up to 80% of the area's median income, and the other 15% for those earning up to 100%. At those levels, the project would serve lower income households than previously envisioned.

Mike Bosi, the county's planning and zoning director, emphasized the changes would result in larger setbacks and enhanced buffering, reducing visual impacts to neighbors, on top of cutting traffic by almost 50%.

He pointed out once the Vanderbilt Beach Road extension is completed, within a few years, it will give residents of Valencia Trails another way in and out of their community and significantly reduce traffic on Immokalee Road by 20% to 25%.

The county's growth management plan actually encourages the development of single-family homes next to multifamily, Bosi said. At the revised density, the apartments would be built at 8.4 units per acre, closer to what's allowed for single-family development in the rural-fringe zoning district.

A handful of residents spoke with passion against the apartments. Several of them argued there are already enough apartments in the county, evidenced by the sign wavers they see out on the street, advertising their availability, and by the deals and incentives offered by management in an attempt to fill the empty ones.

Besides traffic, the neighbors are worried about the project's impact on noise, property values and crime in the neighborhood.

The opponents don't like the transient nature of the apartments, and they fear renters won't care about the looks of their place, and worry management won't stay on top of maintenance and landscaping, like they do as homeowners.

"Rental people come and go. Okay. That's not what we want," said Donna Cascardo, a resident of Valencia Trails.

She said she's not just worried about the impact of the project on her quality of life, but wildlife.

Some opposed both the approved development plan and the revised one. A few, however, said they'd be happy to see what the county has already approved built, with one homeowner stressing she wanted "absolutely no changes."

In his closing remarks to the planning board, Yovanovich said he took offense to opponents who suggested people who rent don't care for their living space, insisting it's just "not accurate." He said when he rented, he treated it like he owned it.

To those who questioned whether the affordable rentals would truly be reserved for and used by essential workers, Yovanovich said the requirements are written into the documents, and the rent-restricted units would be advertised and offered up to those workers first, from nurses to sheriff's deputies.

He emphasized the developer had the right to build a multifamily project currently, at an actual height of 47 feet, and within 30 feet of the eastern property line for Valencia Trails.

With the revisions, the maximum allowable height would grow to 57 feet, but the setback on the east-west property line would expand from 30 to 100 feet, so there would be little, to no visual impact on neighbors, Yovanovich said.

"You're not going to see it from your backyard," he said in answer to opponents. "You're not going to see it from your home."

While one neighbor accused the developer of a "bait and switch," Yovanovich said that's not the case.

"We didn't bait and switch anybody," he said. "We went forward with a project that we thought we could build at the time, then the construction reality hit, the economics hit. And we're requesting a change, and that change is for the better."

He stressed the project would still help address a shortage of affordable housing in the county, while maintaining a preserve, and being respectful of neighbors, with limits on sound and noise.

"It's a great place for our essential service personnel to come and live and make our lives better," Yovanovich. "This is a good project. It meets a need in Collier County."

For those who qualify for the income-restricted apartments, monthly rents could range from $1,566 to $1,958, for a one-bedroom.

It will be a big investment by the developer, he said, estimating the project's cost at $80 million.

Before the vote, planning commissioner Michelle McLeod said she wasn't happy about the loss of the daycare center, with the demand for child care outweighing the supply in the county.

However, she appreciated the fact that the revised project would create far less traffic.

"I think the benefits outweigh the loss," McLeod said.

Planning commissioner Paul Shea said he saw the proposed project as a better alternative, but remained concern about its impact on traffic.

"The biggest concern I have is the egress in and out," he said. "I really think that is going to be ridiculously unsafe."

Mike Sawyer, a principal planner for transportation with the county, said the turning movements would be evaluated as part of the platting and site development plan approval process, and longer turn lanes could be required, as part of an administrative operational review. He said the left turn that's now allowed from Catawba Street onto Immokalee Road would be eliminated.

"The left outs are the problems," Sawyer said.

If Immokalee Road fails, he said, it would become the county's responsibility to fix.

Commissioner Shea motioned to recommend approval. McLeod seconded.

County commissioners are scheduled to hear the petitions on April 8, for a final decision.