A vacant former fast-food building at 3091 U.S. 41 E. in East Naples is part of a proposed mixed-use development that would include a Mediterranean restaurant and 30 workforce housing units. A public hearing sign announces the project’s review.
On Oct. 27, Collier County commissioners will decide the fate of a contested proposal that would replace a former KFC restaurant with a building holding 30 units of workforce housing and a ground-floor Mediterranean restaurant on U.S. 41 East at Andrew Drive.
The plan, advanced by the property’s owner, Nick Matar, would rezone and redevelop the lot into a mixed-use building with 500- to 550-square-foot units, largely for singles. To meet the county’s parking requirements, the development would use two additional developed residential lots Matar purchased, one behind the property and one across the street.
Neighbors have objected at public hearings over potential traffic backups and pedestrian injuries on Andrew Drive, which empties onto busy U.S. 41 East just two blocks from its intersection with Bayshore Drive. They also objected to Matar’s purchase of the two additional residential lots for parking, calling it “creeping commercialization” in a residential area.
Both the Bayshore-Gateway CRA Advisory Board and the Collier County Planning Department recommended denying the application. But a surprise approval by the County Planning Commission has sent the proposal to county commissioners for consideration.
The meeting starts at 9 a.m. in the commissioners’ hearing room at the Collier County Government Center.
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