The fight is on in a battle over a new
condo community.
Developers hope “One Naples” will go up on Vanderbilt Beach.
But some who live nearby fear this 16-story building will
block sunsets and bring more traffic.
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Raymond Dearchs
agrees. He’s one of over 30 community members who signed up
to speak against the project Thursday at the Collier
Planning Commission.
He says allowing this development means more could come.
“Is it going to start leap-frogging down the street,”
Dearchs asked? “Kind of like a development version of
coronavirus? Is it going to keep making the whole
neighborhood worse? It’s got to stop somewhere.”
Betty Pircio lives at the Barefoot Pelican near Vanderbilt
Beach. Her fear? “It’s going to lie in its shadows. It’s
going to shadow us it’s going to create more traffic.”
She says One Naples just won’t fit in the area. “The project
is too big! It’s just too big it’s too dense too tall it’s
too everything.”
Stock Development says they’ve worked with the community in
50 meetings to bring down the height and number of units and
they also have community support.
“Everybody has a voice and we want to listen and that’s why
we did hold 50 community meetings, but we continue to
provide the facts that we believe this is the best use for
this project,” said Claudine Wetzel, Stock Development’s
vice president of sales and marketing. “We continue to
believe that our project is the best use of this space and I
think what’ very interesting today is the opposition even
believes that residential is the best use of the space.”
But Haggerty hopes the Planning Commission will listen and,
ultimately, come down on their side.
“A development of this size just doesn’t seem to work for
us,” he said.
The non-profit group Save Vanderbilt Beach presented their
argument Thursday, attacking the development saying it’s not
compatible or complementary to the neighborhood.
They say they want more compromise and some community
members think Stock’s CEO hasn’t done enough.
“He’s simply been intransigent, and that’s where the anger
comes is he keeps maintaining that he’s met with everybody
and he’s been responsive to them and the reality is that he
is not,” said Buzz Victor of Collier County.
He, Pircio and more than 30 others didn’t get the chance to
voice their concerns at Thursday’s Planning Commission
meeting, once again, but they hope county leaders eventually
get their message and listen.
The arguments on both sides have taken so long, that
Thursday’s meeting will continue for a second time.
“I’ve owned there for 14 years and I bought there because I
love Naples and I love the beach and it’s going to be
severely impacted by this development,” Pircio said.
The project will, once again, be discussed at the Nov. 5
meeting.