Volume 2 – February 6, 2020: Winter 2020 Pt. 2

From my Winter 2020 newsletter, here are the detailed three discussion items:

1) The new City Vision Statement

The “new” City Vision – Let’s finish the job and do it right!

In late 2018, the City began a process to develop a new Vision statement. This had last been carried out in 2007 – a much different point in time in Naples history. There was broad agreement that there was need for a new Vision that reflected the issues and concerns of today, not a decade or more ago.

As a first step, the City commissioned a vision survey where residents could respond to a series of questions about priority issues and concerns and how well they were being addressed. Nearly 2,000 Naples residents responded to the 30-minute online questionnaire – a remarkable response rate. And the results were striking!

Residents overwhelmingly expressed support for protecting Naples’ small town character as a first priority but voiced deep dissatisfaction with how our City was addressing this issue as well as related issues around growth, development, and the environment.

Survey results were compiled and made available nearly a year ago.  Yet today, we still have no new Vision document.  The task has been punted from City Council to the Planning Advisory Board to staff to consultants more times than a Super Bowl football.
 
This process resulted in removing City Council from its proper role of overseeing and “owning” the development of a new Vision statement as as the City’s elected representatives. According to the current plan, a “new” Vision document will be delivered in the next month or so to the Planning Advisory Board by the consultant retained by city staff.
 
What is wrong with this process?  In my view, City Council needs to have accountability for the City Vision.  It should be the foundation for other important city documents and ordinances:  the Comprehensive Plan; zoning and land development codes; city department operating plans.  Consistency and alignment among these items is a primary responsibility of City Council.
 
Council may be asked to give final approval to this document.  But it hasn’t been engaged as it should in its development – its substance and tone.
Given the long and winding road that this process has taken, it is now important to also give our residents another opportunity through a public meeting to provide input  on the document before final approval.
 
This isn’t just about process.  It also is about the substance of what is in the Vision document.  Here are three specific ways in which Council can still make sure that the new City Vision is completed in the right way:

• First, we need a new Vision, not a “weak tea” update of the 2007 document. Times have changed and the challenges facing the City are quite different today. Some goals – such as maintaining our small town character – remain consistent but other new and different goals have emerged.
• Second, this new Vision should reflect what the nearly 2,000 residents expressed as priorities in their survey responses. This particularly means focusing on issues of growth, development and the environment as key to creating the kind of community we want. The new Vision document should contain a summary of the Vision survey that provides quantifiable information about the survey’s results.
• Finally, we should recognize that the Vision is an aspirational document, not a detailed plan. The 2007 Vision provided dozens of pages of specific recommended actions for city departments that were largely forgotten before the ink on the page was dry. The new Vision should be succinct, aspirational and reflective of what our residents today want to see happen in Naples over the next decade. Detailed implementation plans should follow, not be part of the Vision document itself.

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2) Managing growth and development

The time is now! Let’s properly and consistently enforce our land development codes.

No aspect of our city government has engendered more controversy and frustration in recent years than actions around major development proposals.

A consistent pattern has emerged over the past decade or so.Developers and their representatives petition for significant deviations and variances from code, negotiate these through with staff, win approval at the Planning Advisory Board, and deliver a seeming fait accompli to City Council.Council may raise a few mild objections and a few Councilors may even vote against the proposal.But in the end these requests always receive approval.

This has been the process beginning years ago with Bayfront, continuing with Naples Square, 465 Fifth Avenue, the Old Naples Hotel at Third and Broad and, most recently, 1111 Central and the Naples Beach Hotel.Other examples could be provided.

The problem is that we don’t consistently interpret and enforce our own codes, and we have lacked the political will to make improvements to our codes where needed.

In recent months, after years of inaction, public outcry, and kicking the can down the road, Council has begun to engage in a conversation about how to address these matters.A positive discussion occurred at a joint City Council/Planning Advisory Board workshop last November 18.

On January 15, City Council (properly, in my view) voted 4-3 to reject a proposal that would have continued exceptions to our City Charter mandated 42-foot height limit for commercial buildings. Councilors Christman, Hutchison, McLeod and Price voted in the majority against this proposal.

This was the most significant action Council has taken in many years to combat overdevelopment. But it needs to be followed by a series of additional actions to create a comprehensive regulatory framework for development in Naples – one that is consistent with the desires of our residents as communicated in the Vision survey.

How do we continue to fix our “broken” development approval system? Here are six ways to start the process:

• Strictly enforce our 42-foot height limit on all commercial structures with no exceptions for embellishments, mechanical equipment or other items. This height limit has been embedded in our city charter since the year 2000 but has been frequently abrogated through the deviation/variance process.
• Repeal all provisions for deviations from underlying zoning requirements for site plans..
• Tighten up criteria regarding variances. Variances are sometimes appropriate to grant, especially for smaller residential projects, but in general they should be infrequent, not the rule.
• Repeal the density bonus provision in our ordinances allowing developers to purchase for little money the ability to add significant density to large residential projects.
• Set maximum lot coverage percentages to ensure a proper balance between previous and impervious surfaces on both commercial and residential properties, thereby achieving both storm water management and aesthetic benefits.
• Revisit parking requirements in commercial areas to make certain they are equitable and reasonable, both for businesses and residents.

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3) Protecting our environment

Let’s make clean water our top priority – through action and funding

Water has been the center of attention for most Naples residents in the last several years. Red tide…..harmful algae blooms….dead fish, dolphins and sea turtles on our beaches….impacts on our commercial fishing industry….. continuing sea level rise and resulting flooding. The list goes on and on.

The last ten years were in most ways a lost decade in Florida (and Naples) for the environment. State government turned its back on environmental concerns, de-funding state agencies and the regional water management districts and eliminating or ignoring regulatory mandates. This would have created predictable outcomes at any time, but magnified a period when southwest Florida’s water quality problems were already peaking.

The next decade has the potential to be a reversal of the last – it can be the “Water
Decade”, both locally and statewide. This is because of two important changes.

First, a new state administration in Tallahassee has taken a different tack with respect to water issues. The DeSantis administration and the legislature in 2019 provided record funding for water projects and a similar amount is proposed this year.

Second, there is growing awareness, among residents of the severity of the problem. We all now realize the future of this region – our ability to continue to live and prosper here – depends on getting ahead of our water challenges.

Naples, though geographically only a small part of Collier County and southwest Florida, is disproportionately important to addressing these problems because of our location on Naples Bay and the Gulf and our importance to the County’s economy. We can provide key leadership if we so desire.

One very important initiative that is underway is the septic-to-sewer conversion project that affects some 1,300 homes in the City’s Utility Service Area. When completed (this will take another 4-5 years at least) all residences served by the City will be connected to our sewer system.

Beyond that, we have two other major challenges that need to be addressed in the near term:

1. Gulf Shore Boulevard Beach Outfall Project:

In 2011, the State of Florida ordered Naples to replace and upgrade its system of beach outfall pipes, which gather and discharge storm water into the Gulf. Discussions with the State around this issue actually date back to 2005!

It has taken a decade but planning has now proceeded to a point where the first phase of this project – affecting an area from the Naples Beach Hotel south to 2rd Avenue South along Gulf Shore Boulevard – can begin in the next year. The project will involve consolidating, treating and conveying storm water discharge offshore through a pump station to an 18-inch offshore pipeline. A second phase of the project is contemplated to serve the area around and to the north of the Naples Beach Hotel.

Beyond the storm water management benefits of this project, we know that it will be difficult – perhaps impossible – to access any county or state money for beach re-nourishment until this project moves forward.

Last Fall, city staff informed residents about also potentially carrying out additional improvements to Gulf Shore Boulevard as part of this project. These included widening sidewalks and installing dedicated bicycle lanes, as well as installing a new water line. The rationale was that these additional elements could be carried out at the same time and in a more cost efficient manner if combined with the storm water trunk line construction.

These new project elements have generated great controversy in our community. Many affected residents (and others) oppose any actions beyond the Beach Outfall/Storm Water Management project itself because of its impact on the look and feel of Gulf Shore Boulevard. Widening the street for bike lanes and sidewalks would require removing landscaping and trees, among other impacts.

Others believe that these proposed actions would make GSB a safer and better road for pedestrians and bicyclists, furthering city plans to increase bike/ped mobility throughout Naples.

On February 18, City Council has scheduled a workshop to hear from staff and the public on this issue. It will be important for Council to gather all available information and hear directly from residents. This long-delayed storm water management project is too important to our City and its environment to postpone longer. We need to get this project moving and we need to do it in the right way.

If you have a view or an interest, please attend the workshop at 1:00 pm on February 18 at City Council Chambers. This is important to our future!

(For more on this project, click here)

2. Lakes Management Plan implementation: 

For many years, Naples has needed to develop a comprehensive management plan for the 20+ lakes within its boundaries. These lakes – some in public and some in private ownership – provide important storm water management functions. But many have been neglected and poorly maintained for years and need remediation in order to serve their original purpose.

A new City Lakes Management Plan released in late 2019 provides a prioritization of these lakes based on their condition and importance to water quality. Work has begun on Spring Lake and East Lake in the Old Naples neighborhood just south of Fifth Avenue. Discussions are also underway with residents abutting Swan Lake in Park Shore, another high priority lake for attention.

One of the most important actions the City of Naples can take to improve its water quality and reduce its contribution to pollution of our Bays and Gulf is to systematically remediate our system of lakes and ponds. This is long overdue and will take a decade or more to fully complete.

But it is important we start now and commit the funding necessary to meet this goal. This should be an important part of future city Capital Improvement Program (CIP) beginning with our budget deliberations later this year.

(For information on the city lakes plan, click here)

Best regards,