North Naples development plan advances after 44 years

After 44 years, the Imperial Lakes Planned Unit Development in North Naples took a step forward toward construction of 313 homes off a planned extension of Veterans Memorial Boulevard. 

The development was approved in 1982 for 430 multifamily homes, but the developer asked to scale that down to 313 market-rate residences — single-family, two-family, townhouse and multifamily homes on about 78.28 acres north of Imperial Golf Club. However, the developer has been waiting for the boulevard to be extended farther west to U.S. 41— and that’s finally expected to start by 2028.

“We just have been waiting 44 years for access,” land-use attorney Rich Yovanovich told the Collier County Planning Commission, noting he was just finishing college at the time. “That’s a long time to wait to get the right to build something that you’ve been vested to build for 44 years. We’ve been through a lot of five-year cycles where we were in the plan for this road to be built. We’re finally going to get this road built — and this is a very important road for Collier County circulation.” 

After a more than 1½-hour hearing, the Planning Commission on March 5 unanimously approved amending the zoning from a PUD and Special Treatment Overlay District to Imperial Lakes Residential Planned Unit Development, a less intense use. 

The developer is N.A. Realty Trust Inc., which state records show is headed by Aubrey Ferrao, CEO of Gulf Bay Group of Companies. The company has developed numerous luxury properties within Pelican Bay, Fiddler’s Creek and Marco Beach Ocean Resort. 

The undeveloped property is west of Aubrey Rogers High School and Castlewood at Imperial, a PUD within Imperial Golf Estates. To the west and north is the Railhead Scrub Preserve, environmentally sensitive land managed by Conservation Collier. Veterans Memorial Boulevard ends about 880 feet east of the site, where it accesses the high school. The extension of that east-west corridor has been planned for more than 40 years — the land was conveyed by the developer — and it will be used to access the new development. 

Yovanovich noted that under the 1982 approval, the development was allowed five units per acre, consistent with the county’s comprehensive plan, but the amendment would reduce that to the four units per acre allowed in today’s comprehensive plan. The amendment reduces overall density from the original plans, which allowed five-story multifamily buildings throughout the development. 

However, Yovanovich said the developer signed an agreement with Castlewood to limit multifamily homes abutting that development to two stories, which county planning staff recommended. 

Without the commission’s approval, he said, the developer could move forward immediately with 430 homes but opted to scale down. The development features a lake system, he said, and homes would be 20 feet from the shoreline due to a lake-maintenance easement, with a zero-foot setback and green space between the property line and lakes. The zero-foot setback would not be allowed near Castlewood. 

Commission Chair Joseph Schmitt noted there are “pretty significant and pristine wetlands” in that area, which prompted a significant jurisdictional determination when it was approved. But County Development Review Director Jaime Cook said the preserves were part of a previously established ordinance, and the Special Treatment Overlay should have been removed years ago. This zoning change would officially remove it, she said, and preserve areas outlined on the master plan will become the established preserve areas. 

Planning Commissioner Charles Colucci, who lives in the area, called traffic there “outrageously bad.” 

“This is going to make it worse,” he said. “The traffic on Bonita Beach Road is even more nuts. This is going to do nothing but make it worse. I just want everybody to know that. Well, the only way to change it is to revoke.” 

But Schmitt said the 430 homes are vested, and the developer could build that without further approvals. 

“What they’re proposing is better than what they’re allowed to do right now,” Schmitt said. “You can’t stop them from building what they want to do right now under the current zoning.” 

Colucci said he understood that but wanted neighbors and others to be aware. “But I’m a little bit dismayed … that we’re making an intolerable traffic situation even worse, regardless of what we do,” he said. 

County officials said the extension will improve traffic. Lorraine Lantz, the county’s transportation planning manager, said she has been working on funding the Veterans Memorial Boulevard extension since 2015. It is scheduled to be designed in fiscal year 2026, with the county acquiring rights of way afterward. The project is funded in fiscal year 2027, with work scheduled to begin in fiscal year 2028. 

“I get calls constantly about people who want to go to the school and have to go all the way around Immokalee Road and that is causing congestion,” she said, noting trips for the development were already considered. “So, having this interconnection to go all the way to U.S. 41 will help the network in its entirety so that people can go different ways. … They could go through Veterans, they could go Immokalee Road, they could go up to Bonita Beach, they would have a different option.” 

Two residents cited concerns over flooding onto their property, bears and other wildlife, building heights and noise, noting they already deal with loud noise from the high school. 

Brad Cornell, Audubon Western Everglades’ policy director, asked the county to consider Dark Sky-compliant lighting, which staff suggested but will not require, and buffers near neighboring homes and the Railhead Scrub Preserve, which features one of the rarest habitat types in Florida: coastal scrub. He recommended a buffer for fire management and other land-management purposes. 

Commissioners noted the development still must go through a public hearing before the Board of County Commissioners, as well as approvals and permitting requirements by state and federal agencies, including the Army Corps of Engineers and the South Florida Water Management District. Construction is expected to take about a year to begin once approvals are secured. 

“More likely than not, it’s going to improve the situation because right now it’s just a free flow of water off our site wherever it goes,” Yovanovich said of flooding concerns, noting there will be a detailed engineering review. 

He was not sympathetic to neighbors who opposed the development or the possibility of five-story buildings, which were approved about a decade or more before their projects were built. He said the reduction to 313 homes would be a benefit to the overall community and neighboring homes. 

Yovanovich said along with the amendment, county commissioners also must approve an agreement for the developer to design, permit and build the boulevard extension to the railroad and the county will take over and extend it from there to U.S. 41.

Other members of the project team include Q. Grady Minor, Turrell, Hall & Associates and JMB Transportation Engineering.