Collier planning board approves proposed changes to rural growth plan

Proposed changes to a rural growth plan for Collier County that aims to cluster future development in villages and towns and create large swaths of preservation cleared an important first hurdle Friday over the objections of opponents.

The Collier County Planning Commission, following multiple hearings this month, voted 4-1 to recommend that Collier commissioners move forward with the changes proposed by county staff. Planning Commission Chairman Edwin Fryer voted no.

A voluntary program in the county's Rural Lands Stewardship Area, which spans 185,000 acres in Collier's largely undeveloped interior, creates the framework for directing new development away from environmentally sensitive land and preserving wetlands and wildlife corridors. 

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The majority of the land in the RLSA is owned by a group of property owners with large holdings, known as the Eastern Collier Property Owners. By giving up their rights to develop lands deemed environmentally valuable, they can earn credits that allow them to build towns and villages in areas identified as more appropriate for development.

Among the changes proposed by county staff would be capping building in the RLSA, protecting agricultural lands from being developed and asking developers to set land aside for affordable housing.

Although the program was conceived two decades ago, long-awaited tweaks have been slow to take hold. Some of the proposed changes had been approved by county leaders a decade ago but were never implemented.

And with a handful of proposed villages already moving along under the current rules, some worry about letting more time pass.

"If we do nothing or we attempt to rewrite this or the board attempts to rewrite it, developers are going to move forward under the current (comprehensive) plan and the current (land development code)," said Planning Commissioner Joseph Schmitt.

"And frankly to me, given the years that we've been at this, that alternative is the least acceptable alternative," he added. "What's offered to us here is 90,000 acres of preserve, 40,000 acres to be protected for (agricultural) preservation and a 45,000 acres cap (on development)."

Among the county staff’s proposed changes to the program are:

• Capping the maximum development in the RLSA at 45,000 acres. To date, about 9,000 acres of towns and villages have been either built, approved or are moving through the process under the current rules, according to county officials.
• Adding incentives for landowners to protect agricultural lands, which officials say could protect up to 40,000 acres from development.
• Allowing towns to be greater than 1,500 acres and up to 5,000 acres. Under current rules towns can be between 1,000 and 4,000 acres in size.
• Allowing villages to be greater than 300 acres and up to 1,500 acres in the Area of Critical State Concern. Currently, a village can be 100 to 1,000 acres.
• Adding wildlife human interaction plans and incentives for panther corridors.
• Adjusting restoration credits with a tiered system.
• Adding a land set aside for affordable housing.

To Fryer, the lone no vote on the planning board, some of the language proposed by county staff is not strong enough.

"Instead of encouraging smart growth, we should require smart growth," he said.

Smart growth is a development approach that encourages, among other things, a range of housing choices and walkable neighborhoods.

While the proposed changes have been heralded as long overdue by some, they have been met with pushback by others.

The League of Women Voters of Collier County detailed its objections in a lengthy letter to the planning commission. In it, the group also asked that planning commissioners recommend to county commissioners that they "take a time out or zoning in progress pause on review and approval" of new development applications in the RLSA.

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The Conservancy of Southwest Florida, which sued Collier in March over county commissioners’ approval of a rural village in the RLSA, has said that the proposed changes don’t go far enough to fix what they see as flaws in the program.

The group is "very disappointed" with the planning commission's decision, April Olson, senior environmental planning specialist for the Conservancy, said in an email Friday to the Daily News.

"Over the past three years, the Conservancy and members of the public have attended numerous workshops and provided extensive comments and recommendations to improve the RLSA program," she wrote. "We feel that our input and concerns and those of the public have been largely discounted."

The amendments, Olson said, "mirror proposed language from the first review, nearly 12 years ago."

"Since then we have learned a lot about what is working and what is not working," she wrote. "The proposed changes to the RLSA do little to address what we have learned."

But other environmental groups have backed the proposed recommendations, saying they are needed and would help protect wildlife, wetlands and habitat.

Meredith Budd, regional policy director for the Florida Wildlife Federation, said in a text message Friday she was "very pleased" to see the planning board move the amendments forward and called the vote a "big step" for the RLSA.

"We have a program that’s already preserved over 55,000 acres in exchange for more compact development than the underlying zoning," she wrote. "But moving forward with these amendments will further enhance the program. It has been a long time coming, and still has a long process ahead."

Once the changes are fully adopted, Budd said, it will make the program "more equitable" and "lead to a greater preservation footprint."

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Brad Cornell, Southwest Florida policy associate for Audubon of the Western Everglades and Audubon Florida, said in a text message that it was "a strong vote to support well vetted improvements" to the program.

"If adopted by the board of commissioners this successful conservation program for large private lands will become even more successful," he wrote.

Members of ECPO, the group of large property owners in the RLSA, also were pleased with the vote Friday.

"The amendments to the RLSA program were proposed by Collier County staff based on years of meetings and consensus-building among a variety of stakeholders, including the landowner members of the Eastern Collier Property Owners who voluntarily participate in the program," Mitch Hutchcraft, vice president of real estate for King Ranch, said in an emailed statement. 

"We appreciate the Planning Commission’s thorough review process and their vote to move forward with these recommended improvements," he added.

The proposed changes are expected to come before county commissioners in November and, if approved, still need to undergo a review by state officials before they come back to planning commissioners and county commissioners for adoption.

Connect with the reporter at patrick.riley@naplesnews.com or on Twitter @PatJRiley.