Article Courtesy of The
Naples Daily News
By Lisa Conley
Published December 12, 2018
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Eight Naples homeowners associations have banded together to preserve the
small-town feel of Naples, which they fear is quickly disappearing due to the
city's penchant for granting deviations and variances from its own codes.
"Deviations and variances should be the rare exception, not the rule," the HOA
conglomerate wrote in a letter to the city's planning advisory board. "Excessive
variances establish a dangerous and undesirable precedent."
The city is re-evaluating its vision
plan, a process it undertakes about every 10 years, to
decide if it needs to make any changes, but the presidents
of the eight HOAs are concerned the process is flawed and,
as a result, its outcome will be flawed, too.
"In our view, the process as now conceived places in serious
jeopardy many fundamental values by the residents and voters
of our seven HOAs," Linda Black, president of The Moorings
Property Owners Association, wrote in a Dec. 5 email to the
planning advisory board. Since then, another HOA has joined
the group.
The group's primary complaint involves the lack of outreach
to the HOAs, which together represent the majority of
taxpayers in Naples. In August the city hired Stantec
consulting group to poll Naples residents, taxpayers and
city-based businesses on the 2007 Vision Plan to determine
if it needs an update, but Stantec did not seek input from
the majority of HOAs, according to the group.
However, Tim Hancock, senior planner with Stantec and the
man overseeing the community outreach process, said he
hasn’t started soliciting opinions about the vision plan.
Instead, he’s been informing businesses, organizations and
residents about the process, which will start in earnest in
January.
"There may be a misunderstanding that the
meetings we’ve been having are for the purposes of gathering
information, but they're just for providing information
about the process," he said. "We’ll be hosting a series of
workshops, and there'll also be an online survey, which will
be the primary platforms for people to voice their
opinions.”
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This isn’t the first time Stantec has faced criticism for its work; the
company got heat from Collier County residents earlier this year regarding
its involvement with the county's stormwater fee proposal, which
commissioners ultimately decided to put off for at least a year due to the
public outcry.
“I don’t think Stantec did you all any good, quite frankly,” Tony Pires, a
lawyer representing several community development districts, told county
commissioners at their Sept. 6 meeting.
Commissioner Burt Saunders agreed.
"I think Stantec did not do us any favors on this,” he said. “I hate to say
that, because I have friends there."
Hancock said the two situations can’t be compared.
“I don’t think there are many, if any, similarities between the creation of
stormwater fees and a visioning process,” he said. “Every public engagement
effort is tailored to meet the needs of the community, and the whole purpose
is to bring the public into the process because the more we get the public
involved, the better off the resulting policy will be.”
Stantec will present a findings report to the planning advisory board in
April.
David Feight, chairman of the planning advisory board, could not be reached
for comment Monday.
The HOA group — Aqualane Shores Association, Coquina Sands Homeowners
Association, Gulf Shore Property Owners Association, Lake Park Neighborhood
Association, The Moorings Property Owners Association, Old Naples
Association, Port Royal and Royal Harbor Association — will attend
Wednesday's planning advisory board meeting.
The meeting starts at 8:30 a.m. at City Hall, 735 Eighth St. S., across from
Cambier Park in downtown Naples.
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