Docks on Vanderbilt Channel
State approves controversial plan to build docks on Vanderbilt Channel in North Naples
By ERIC STAATS
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
NAPLES — A developer’s controversial plan to build docks on Vanderbilt Channel in North Naples won Florida approval Tuesday.
Gov. Charlie Crist and the Cabinet voted 3-1 to approve Signature Communities’ plans to build 49 slips along a mangrove shoreline west of Vanderbilt Drive and east of Delnor-Wiggins Pass State Park. Attorney General Bill McCollum voted no.
The docks, part of the Dunes project, required approval of a lease of state submerged lands and plans to place riprap beneath the dock and dredge.
Vanderbilt Beach residents and the Conservancy of Southwest Florida have opposed the plans, saying the docks will ruin the waterway by destroying mangroves and harming manatee habitat. Backers of the project said the concerns are overblown.
The project still needs Collier County approvals and a permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers but Tuesday’s approval was an important step.
“I’m disappointed,” Vanderbilt Beach Residents Association Secretary Kathy Robbins said as she traveled back to Naples from testifying at Tuesday’s hearing in Tallahassee.
Tuesday’s outcome was different than in October 2007, when a deadlocked Cabinet offered opponents a glimmer of hope with a tie 2-2 vote on the submerged land lease.
Back then, McCollum and Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink voted no. Sink cited inadequate submerged land lease fees.With today’s proposal, Signature Communities agreed that instead of paying a one-time $31,000 lease fee, the project would also pay any fee increases the Cabinet or the state Legislature approve within two years of the lease going into effect, according to the lease.
Also changed since the October 2007 vote, the developer has agreed to deed 54 acres of submerged land and deed another 66 acres above the mean high water line to the state of Florida.McCollum cast the sole dissenting vote Tuesday, saying the new wrinkles in the project aren’t enough.“I don’t see the change,” McCollum said.
Besides Robbins, two other members of the Vanderbilt Beach Residents Association made the trip to Tallahassee for Tuesday’s hearing.The Conservancy sent a letter June 1 to the Cabinet, saying the Dune projects is incompatible with the designation of Wiggins Pass as an Outstanding Florida Waterway and that it failed to meet the “public interest test” required for approving submerged land leases.
“This is certainly no casual, slight or NIMBY type of opposition,” attorney Bill Hyde, an attorney for opponents, told the Cabinet.
Backers of the project also were at the hearing, including a fishing guide who said the project would not harm the ecosystem he relies on for a living.The guide, South Bay Marina owner Justin Finch, said having additional boat docks at the Dunes will alleviate overcrowding at county boat ramps.
Dunes resident Pam Mac’Kie told the Cabinet that the Dunes only wants what others in the neighborhood already have.“We’d like please to have access to the waterway too,” said Mac’Kie, a former Collier County commissioner.
Dunes attorney Steve Lewis told the Cabinet that the project is “not unreasonable” and meets state standards.
“I would suggest we’re not even remotely overreaching,” Lewis said. “We’ve done everything anyone asked us to do and more.”
By ERIC STAATS
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
NAPLES — A developer’s controversial plan to build docks on Vanderbilt Channel in North Naples won Florida approval Tuesday.
Gov. Charlie Crist and the Cabinet voted 3-1 to approve Signature Communities’ plans to build 49 slips along a mangrove shoreline west of Vanderbilt Drive and east of Delnor-Wiggins Pass State Park. Attorney General Bill McCollum voted no.
The docks, part of the Dunes project, required approval of a lease of state submerged lands and plans to place riprap beneath the dock and dredge.
Vanderbilt Beach residents and the Conservancy of Southwest Florida have opposed the plans, saying the docks will ruin the waterway by destroying mangroves and harming manatee habitat. Backers of the project said the concerns are overblown.
The project still needs Collier County approvals and a permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers but Tuesday’s approval was an important step.
“I’m disappointed,” Vanderbilt Beach Residents Association Secretary Kathy Robbins said as she traveled back to Naples from testifying at Tuesday’s hearing in Tallahassee.
Tuesday’s outcome was different than in October 2007, when a deadlocked Cabinet offered opponents a glimmer of hope with a tie 2-2 vote on the submerged land lease.
Back then, McCollum and Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink voted no. Sink cited inadequate submerged land lease fees.With today’s proposal, Signature Communities agreed that instead of paying a one-time $31,000 lease fee, the project would also pay any fee increases the Cabinet or the state Legislature approve within two years of the lease going into effect, according to the lease.
Also changed since the October 2007 vote, the developer has agreed to deed 54 acres of submerged land and deed another 66 acres above the mean high water line to the state of Florida.McCollum cast the sole dissenting vote Tuesday, saying the new wrinkles in the project aren’t enough.“I don’t see the change,” McCollum said.
Besides Robbins, two other members of the Vanderbilt Beach Residents Association made the trip to Tallahassee for Tuesday’s hearing.The Conservancy sent a letter June 1 to the Cabinet, saying the Dune projects is incompatible with the designation of Wiggins Pass as an Outstanding Florida Waterway and that it failed to meet the “public interest test” required for approving submerged land leases.
“This is certainly no casual, slight or NIMBY type of opposition,” attorney Bill Hyde, an attorney for opponents, told the Cabinet.
Backers of the project also were at the hearing, including a fishing guide who said the project would not harm the ecosystem he relies on for a living.The guide, South Bay Marina owner Justin Finch, said having additional boat docks at the Dunes will alleviate overcrowding at county boat ramps.
Dunes resident Pam Mac’Kie told the Cabinet that the Dunes only wants what others in the neighborhood already have.“We’d like please to have access to the waterway too,” said Mac’Kie, a former Collier County commissioner.
Dunes attorney Steve Lewis told the Cabinet that the project is “not unreasonable” and meets state standards.
“I would suggest we’re not even remotely overreaching,” Lewis said. “We’ve done everything anyone asked us to do and more.”
Labels: Boat Docks Naples, Boating in Naples, Docks on the Vanderbilt Channel, The Dunes
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