Sugden Park-Bayshore connector bridge opens in East Naples

A long-awaited connector bridge and walkway between Sugden Park and Bayshore Drive opened Feb. 26 , creating a half-mile pedestrian route that brings people on both sides closer to each other’s amenities.

About 100 bikers, walkers and runners attended the grand opening, prompting Trinity Scott, head of Collier County Transportation Management Services, to tell the crowd, “I’ve been to a lot of ribbon cuttings, but none as well attended as this.”

The connector features a 15-foot-wide walkway for pedestrians and cyclists, beginning with a 400-foot leaf-design brick promenade from Bayshore Drive and continuing along 1,350 feet of boardwalk over wetlands and a lake. The route ends at Sugden Park’s Lake Avalon path, near the park’s west loop parking area.

Everyone pitched in 

The area is fully landscaped, with Naples Botanical Garden supplying plants and young trees suited to the environment and assisting with planting. Metal benches with cutout designs and an observation deck overlooking the lake provide gathering and viewing areas.

With the connector and promenade complete, two county-owned parcels — about 1.5 acres and nearly 4 acres — on opposite sides of the project are expected to be offered for sale. The county has not yet sought bids but expects to do so in the coming months. Opera Naples has expressed interest in purchasing the larger parcel for an opera house, although bidding will be open to all parties.

The only debate over this walkway has been how long it has been in the planning stages.  

“Since its inception in 2000 — yes, 2000, not 20-something, [but] 2000 — the Bayshore-Gateway master plan envisioned a pedestrian connection to Sugden Park, a pathway designed not just to link the two locations, but to bring people, neighborhoods and opportunities together,” Scott said. The results, she added, show “what we can accomplish when we work together with patience and determination.”

From a mulched sidewalk 

Maurice Guttierez, chairman of the Bayshore Community Redevelopment, remembers the muscle behind this project coming after 2005, however, from the late Bill Neal. Neal, sometimes dubbed “the Mayor of Bayshore,” was the longtime chairman of the Naples Bayshore/ Gateway Community Redevelopment Board and Chairman of the Bayshore Municipal Special Taxing Unit. He brought Guttierez on the board in 2005.  

“I’d be wrong not to mention our hero, Bill Neal, who really had this vision, and shared it with us,” Guttierez said. He recalled Neal’s early enthusiasm for the idea, which evolved from a mulched sidewalk along a chain-link fence into the park-like access dedicated Thursday.

“And without the support of everybody here — all the workshops, all the headaches,” he said, pausing to laugh, “this is how you make a vision come true, truly transforming Bayshore.”

“I’m very lucky to be here,” he concluded, thanking Bayshore Project Manager Tami Scott and Program Manager Shirley Garcia, along with other staff who have seen the project through.  

“It was a lot of the community that really pushed it,” said Dan Kowal, county commissioner for District Four, in which the Bayshore neighborhood lies. “They lived on streets here like Lunar ... and you could literally see Sugden Park from their homes. But you would have to traverse through Kelly Creek, through the woods a little to get there. Or to get there without getting soaking wet or bit by a rattlesnake, you could take Bayshore to Thomasson and then Thomasson all the way. And it’s about a 2-mile trek.”

Safer for bikes, pedestrians 

The new route shortens that journey to just over a half-mile, improving safety for cyclists and pedestrians, residents said.

“I enjoy riding my bike just to be riding, too, and then to get to pickleball, this is fantastic,” said Cindy Campione, a resident of the Sandpiper Street neighborhood who plays at Thomasson Park.

“This is so exciting for us to be off the road, going into Sugden Park,” said Jamie Depaola,  one of the organizers for Run Bayshore, a group that varies from the teens to more than 100 depending on the season. The runners plan routes of varying lengths through the neighborhood. Increasing traffic on Bayshore has been a challenge for the group, which meets at 6 p.m. Wednesdays to start their runs from Ankrolab Brewery on Bayshore. 

Nearly a dozen members of the Windstar Bike Club had come as well in their fluorescent yellow bike shirts. 

“This is awesome. We’ve been looking forward to this for many, many years because of access to Sugden Park. We sometimes bike it and we’re across the street in Windstar, so it’s just perfect for us,” declared Rick Dobson, a 20-year member. “[It’s a] new path and a safe way of going to Sugden Park, which is great.” 

A longer version of this story will appear in The Naples Press.