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Reproduced with
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Naples Daily News |
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URL: http://www.naplesnews.com/npdn/news/article/0,2071,NPDN_14940_3409978,00.html |
Ave Maria
project sets precedent for conservation
By By DIANNA
SMITH,
dlsmith@naplesnews.com
December
19, 2004
Farm fields cover the
landscape and wildlife still roves through old crops. The 15,000 acres rest
in the middle of nowhere along a two-lane road that eventually leads to the
small farming village of Immokalee.
This far-flung section of
Collier County was never a place folks were anxious to live or businessmen
were eager to venture.
But now even government
leaders and environmental advocates in Tallahassee and around the country
are watching it closely.
Ave Maria University and
Ave Maria the town will be built on almost 5,000 of those acres off Oil Well
Road in the eastern part of the county, a project made possible through a
dynamic partnership formed by Barron Collier Cos. and Domino's Pizza
founder/Ave Maria creator Tom Monaghan.
Though Florida is a magnet
for development, this project sticks out from the rest because it's the
first to take advantage of a 3-year-old state law that encourages both
development and preservation of land.
Ave Maria is quickly
becoming a project that planners, developers and environmentalists say will
be looked upon years from now as the first successful user of Florida's
rural land stewardship program.
"People will look back a
decade from now, and we'll have protected a million acres of land based on
this model," said Eric Draper, policy director for Audubon of Florida. "And
we'll say, 'It all started right there in Immokalee.'"
For years, developers and
environmentalists in Florida have tried to come up with a way to prevent
urban sprawl and protect rural land values.
Ave Maria, Draper said,
finally broke the code.
The Audubon of Florida
agrees with the concept of self-contained, village-type developments
surrounded by natural resources.
Ave Maria University, the
first Roman Catholic university to be built in the United States in more
than 40 years, will draw growth to an area that now has no central feature
besides agriculture. That growth will fill Ave Maria the town.
Monaghan has compared AMU
to prestigious schools such as Notre Dame. He has plans to build
campus-related academic, administration and recreation facilities. There
will be chapels, athletic complexes, sporting events, student housing and a
golf course.
The town will offer 11,000
residential units ranging from condominiums to luxury homes. More than 700
low-income units will be available.
There will be 690,000
square feet of retail space, 400 hotel rooms, 35,000 square feet of medical
facilities, parks and public schools. AMU will provide a high school and a
private school for grades kindergarten through eighth grade.
The idea is to provide
necessities, such as grocery stores, medical clinics, churches, libraries
and schools, so those who live in the development will rarely have to leave,
causing less traffic congestion in eastern Collier County.
But the idea also includes
preserving the land that will surround the community.
The Collier County
Commission adopted the rural land stewardship program into the county's
comprehensive plan in October 2002 and, shortly after, Ave Maria and Barron
Collier Co. officials announced its partnership and plan for development by
way of the rural growth plan.
The plan allows landowners
to voluntarily give up development rights in natural areas in exchange for
credits that could be used to build on less sensitive land.
The two groups will need
28,402 stewardship credits to develop the land.
The plan entices developers
to join because Craig Evans, president of Stewardship America Inc., said
housing developments or businesses surrounded by natural resources have
higher market values.
Stewardship America is a
nonprofit group based in Boca Raton that encourages and helps create
land-use policies that control sprawl, promote rural economic development
and enhance environmental protection across the country.
Evans calls the rural land
stewardship program a revolutionary growth management plan that brings
modern planning to rural areas without destroying rural character.
"There is a lot of
attention focused on Florida," he said. "It's seen to many as (using) the
most effective tool to deal with growth pressures."
Evans, who travels
throughout the country to work with state officials on how to plan for rural
areas, said states including California, Virginia, Texas and North Carolina
are considering creating growth plans similar to Florida's guidelines.
Draper said representatives
from the Audubon of Florida were recently in St. Lucie County promoting Ave
Maria's strategy as a way to preserve farmland, and Evans said he knows of
four other projects in the state gradually following in the footsteps of Ave
Maria.
Chuck Littlejohn, who is
involved in growth management work with Littlejohn, Mann and Associates in
Tallahassee, a government consulting firm, said organizations in Tallahassee
interested in a proactive approach to planning are monitoring rural growth
plan legislation and the Ave Maria development.
Although construction
hasn't yet started, Littlejohn calls Ave Maria a success story because it's
the first project to take advantage of the rural land stewardship program
and, so far, the project that is expected to attract more than 20,000 people
has met with few roadblocks and much praise.
"We're very pleased with
the way it's been implemented in Collier County," Littlejohn said. "There
are a lot of local governments looking at it elsewhere in the state."
Those monitoring the Ave
Maria project may have expected the first phase of the development to be
complete in 2006, but that date has now changed to 2007.
One reason for the timeline
change is the grueling process of obtaining the permits.
Applications for
construction bids have already been sent and returned to Barron Collier
Cos., but no one has been granted projects because a start date still hasn't
been set. Construction can't start until the environmental permits are
granted from the state Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Tom Sansbury, director of
community services for landowner Barron Collier Cos., said officials have
initial permits from the South Florida Water Management District, but
they're still waiting for federal permits, as well as state-level permits.
Then there are the two
applications the groups submitted this year.
The first was the
Development of Regional Impact, or DRI. The DRI application covers
everything from garbage collection to the number of retirees expected to
live in the town.
It's up to the state
Department of Community Affairs to give final approval of the plans, but the
state asks for the county's recommendation as well. The detailed plans will
be presented during two public hearings: One will be held before the county
planning commission and the other before county commissioners sometime next
year.
The other application is
the Stewardship Receiving Area Designation application, which was submitted
to the county last week. It gave the public its first glimpse of the layout
of the town and university, and will likely be approved during the summer of
2005.
Another reason for the
one-year project delay is the demand for and the cost of concrete, steel and
laborers.
AMU President Nick Healy
said the cost of construction has increased the past year, as has the cost
of concrete and steel. Both are in high demand throughout the world, Healy
said, and he doesn't expect that to change anytime soon.
He said laborers are also
more scarce than usual because many are repairing homes and businesses
damaged by the hurricanes this past summer.
Healy added that Monaghan's
financial commitment has remained the same. The first phase is expected to
cost more than $200 million.
The cement, steel and labor
issues have forced the developer and Monaghan to cut sections of phase one
and, instead, throw them into phase two.
Eliminated from the first
phase was the construction of the administration building, a dormitory for
graduate students and one academic building.
Healy said once the
permanent campus is open, it will serve a total of 6,000 students —
graduates and undergraduates. The AMU interim campus in North Naples has an
estimated 300 students.
If Ave Maria succeeds, it
will encourage other developers to follow suit and millions of acres could
be preserved.
"Immokalee is going to be
one of the most sought-after places in Florida 10 or 20 years from now,"
Healy said. "You can just sense Immokalee is on the cusp of enormous change.
It's going to be transformed."
Copyright 2004, Naples Daily News. All Rights
Reserved.
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