Thursday night’s neighborhood information meeting regarding a proposed amendment to the Cocohatchee Bay planned unit development was déjà vu all over again for the hundreds of people who attended the more than two-hour event via Zoom or in person at St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church in North Naples.
On the table this time is a proposal by Detroit-based Lodge Abbott Associates LLC, the developer of Kalea Bay high-rise waterfront condominiums in North Naples, to amend the Cocohatchee Bay PUD to increase the number of permitted units from 590 to 600 for the five-tower project along Vanderbilt Drive just north of Wiggins Pass Road. The proposal would add three stories to the 17-story fifth and northernmost tower, which has yet to start construction.
The Kalea Bay project has a contentious history in Collier County stretching back decades. In late 2000, county commissioners approved the Cocohatchee Bay PUD with four 20-story buildings and one 15-story tower. Lodge Abbott Investments Associates sued the county in 2005 in a $280 million lawsuit to remove Collier’s bald eagle protection rules in order to make the development of Kalea Bay possible near an eagle’s nest. In a 2008 settlement, the county agreed to allow 590 units among the five towers and to increase the 15-story building to 17 stories. As vertical construction began on the first tower in 2015, the company attempted to reopen the settlement with a request to build scores of additional homes on adjacent property planned for a golf course, but the construction of the golf course is expected to begin in 2023.
That’s not all. In 2018, the company agreed to pay a $350,000 fine to settle a lawsuit filed by the Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Department of Justice over allegations that it violated the Clean Water Act by filling in more than an acre of wetlands to build one of the towers. The fourth tower is under construction, while three towers and common amenities have been built.
While an additional 10 units in the fifth tower hardly seem worth the hassle of returning to face the intense public scrutiny and government process required to accomplish the goal, the fact that units start at $2 million and are each capable of bringing in nearly $5 million makes the arduous journey worthwhile for the developer. The additional payoff for the investment could approach $50 million.
The county requires neighborhood information meetings, commonly referred to by the acronym NIM, for zoning issues prior to public hearings at Planning Commission and Collier Commission meetings. “We have not been scheduled for the Planning Commission or the board and I’d say we’re a few months out from being scheduled. We still have some additional (county) staff review. We’re in review now,” said Bob Mulhere, president and CEO of Naples-based Hole Montes planning and engineering firm, which was representing Lodge Abbott and hosting Thursday night’s NIM with a team that included land-use attorney Rich Yovanovich, land development consultant Karen Bishop, traffic consultant Norm Trebilcock, senior biologist Tim Hall and project designer Jay Westendorf.
The Cocohatchee Bay PUD consists of more than 530 acres along both sides of Vanderbilt Drive. The site is bordered on the west by the Delnor-Wiggins Pass State Park and Barefoot Beach Preserve County Park, on the east by Tarpon Cove and Wiggins Bay PUDs, on the south by the Dunes PUD, and on the north by the Arbor Trace and Retreat PUDs. The additional 10 units proposed for the clustered development would mean a change in density from 1.11 dwellings per acre to 1.13 per acre, significantly less than the permitted four dwelling units per acre for that area.
In addition to making the fifth tower consistent in height with the other residential buildings, the PUD amendment request would add an essential service use within the golf course tract for a North Collier Fire Control and Rescue District station. A developer donation in the amended settlement agreement would also provide a 100-space parking lot for park visitors to be designed and built by the developer on 3 acres of property zoned C-3 across from the state park.
Neighbors in attendance had numerous concerns and questions about the proposed amendment. Residents expressed concerns about the additional building height, noise from the golf course maintenance building and proposed fire station, lights from the driving range, adequate landscape buffers, wildlife displacement and additional traffic on Wiggins Pass Road, among other issues.
