In the summer, the Collier County Planning Commission is expected to consider competing proposals for new golf course fencing rules.
The advisory board is scheduled to hear the proposals — in the form of privately-initiated Land Development Code (LDC) amendments − on July 16.
The Quail Creek Golf Club in North Naples seeks an amendment that would allow fencing up to 70 feet tall in a Golf Course and Recreational Use (GC) Zoning District − the district the club is in and is governed by in the county.
Meanwhile, a competing proposal by nearby residents would limit the height to 35 feet in the GC district, unless there’s special approval for something taller.
The two proposals followed a rift between the residents and the club after it attempted to install more than 60-foot-tall fencing behind their homes, without warning.
The lack of communication − and failure to obtain a permit − led to code enforcement complaints against the private members-only club.
The complaints resulted in a Stop Work Order and a code enforcement case that is still pending, as the club’s management works to resolve the situation, with hopes of keeping the poles through its code amendment.
Any new fencing rules, if adopted by the county, would apply to all courses in GC districts, within the unincorporated area, unless they’re exempted in some way.
Both proposals include design standards, addressing everything from setbacks to landscaping.
At a hearing on May 6, a majority of Collier County’s Development Services Advisory Committee rejected both proposals, voting to recommend that the county come up with its own rules for the protective barrier fencing instead.
The committee’s decision went against a recommendation by its technical panel, the Land Development Review Subcommittee, to support the amendment offered up by the golf club, with a few conditions.
Dispute started more than two years ago
At Quail Creek, the towering poles started rising in April 2024, along the western edge of the driving range, located off Valewood Drive, roughly one mile east of Interstate 75 and north of Immokalee Road.
The netting is meant to prevent errant practice balls from reaching Hole No. 10 on the Creek Course.
The decision to install mesh fencing came after six golfers got hit by range balls on that hole, including Christopher Ragain, who told the Development Services Advisory Committee this month he could have died, if he’d been hit a few inches lower on his head.
“He basically almost lost his life. And, we said, as a club, ‘We have a huge problem here. We need to protect our members, our guests, our neighbors,'” said Chris Evans, the club’s manager. “We are definitely a friendly neighbor.”
For the club, safety is of the utmost importance, he said.
He admitted to missteps in the process of adding the protective fencing.
However, he said, the club’s leadership was not aware of the need for a building permit. Nor, he said, did it know the fence contractor, who had a Florida license, needed a specialty county license at the time.
While the residents who are fighting the tall fencing have suggested the club brought problems onto itself by removing trees to expand its driving range, Evans blamed the many hurricanes over the past decade for taking out so many of the protective trees.
Trish Stites, a member of the club and its board president, emphasized that safety concerns are real. She described half the membership as a “family unit,” with kids of all ages visiting and using the club.
“Safety is a big, big, big issue with this situation,” she said.
The club has about 550 golf members, but it also has social members − and combined, it serves at least 1,500 people, including spouses and children, Stites said.
Zach Lombardo, a Naples land use attorney who represents Quail Creek, said the club never intended to break any rules, but the rules weren’t obvious and they weren’t followed by others.
“There is a lot of facilities out there that are just as out of compliance as we are,” he said, adding that, unlike Quail Creek, none of them are attempting to make things right.
After the club ran into problems with its fencing, Lombardo said it requested that county staff draft a Land Development Code amendment to clarify the rules, seeing it as a countywide issue, but the club didn’t get much of a reaction. So, he said, the club decided to pursue its own amendment, with a sense of urgency.
“The club felt the county should have taken the ball here,” Lombardo said.
County staff determined there’s a 35-foot height limit
When residents reported the lack of a building permit to code enforcement, the Quail Creek Club tried to fix the situation by applying for one, but county staff interpreted the land code to read there’s a height limit of 35 feet for everything in the GC district, including fencing, although it’s not specifically written that way, Lombardo said.
At this point, with two proposals on the table to resolve the matter, Mike Bosi, the county’s planning and zoning director, said in a statement that county staff has no intention of offering up its own version. He didn’t address whether staff ever considered initiating its own amendment.
“The outcome of these two proposed LDC amendments will be an amendment or compromise between the two that is reviewed and recommended by the Collier County Planning Commission (CCPC) and ultimately decided by the Board of County Commissioners. Based upon this anticipated outcome, Collier County does not recognize a need to initiate a third LDC amendment to address an issue that two current privately initiated LDC amendments are addressing,” Bosi said.
The club’s fencing would be closer to 63 feet at its maximum height, including a berm.
With the help of consultants, the club determined the 35-foot fencing wouldn’t be nearly enough to address its safety concerns, based on the design of the golf course and the location of the driving range, and that other operators might need twice as much, if not more, in height to be safe, Lombardo said.
Although the safety issues have yet to be resolved at the Creek Course, the course closed for a major renovation in April, and it isn’t expected to open until December. So, golfers aren’t at immediate risk, as the debate over fencing rules continues, Evans said.
The course renovation won’t be enough to fix the safety problems, he said, but club management hopes by the time the course reopens later this year the requested fencing will have been approved and completed.
Two hearings will be required before the county commission on the two Land Development Code amendments. The tentative hearing dates are Sept. 22 and Oct. 13.
Neighbors are eager for a resolution
The upset neighbors are eager for a resolution.
Several neighbors proposed their own code amendment to cap the height of barrier fencing at 35 feet in the GC district, unless the county grants a conditional use, which couldn’t happen without public hearings.
The sponsors, including Letitia and Frank Accarrino, are hoping to clear up any confusion, so others won’t find themselves in their same shoes.
A little more than two years ago, the Accarrinos watched in shock as the club’s giant poles came into view from their backyard at Quail Creek Estates, without notice. The poles sit about 240 feet from the edge of their property.
After the poles appeared, she claims the club agreed to one meeting with neighbors, in which the neighbors were told that the poles were “staying up no matter what.”
“Later on, we tried to provide the club with the vigorous study that we had done with a Florida Gulf Coast University professor showing that a 35-foot fence was more than adequate, but they weren’t even interested,” Letitia said.
The club’s proposed amendment, she said, is its last-ditch effort to keep the poles after failing to resolve the code violation other ways, including by seeking a variance.
The affected homeowners have complained the unsightly poles have hurt their property values, with one couple claiming to have lost $1.25 million after selling their home at half the expected price.
When the county revised the code in 2004, the language applying to accessory uses, such as fencing, inadvertently fell out, although “nothing substantive was meant to change,” Letitia said.
She said she remains “optimistic that reason will prevail and that the homeowners’ amendment, or something close to it, will be adopted.”
“Our amendment allows golf courses to obtain conditional use permission for higher barriers, thus solving the problem for golf courses of having to obtain a variance for golf barriers over 35 feet under current law,” she said. “The conditional use process would also recognize that homeowners, those who have invested significantly in our Collier County properties and our community, have legitimate interests and should have the right to express their concerns. To take away that voice would be wrong.”
Most of all, Letitia hopes that peace will “reign again at Quail Creek someday soon and that I can go back to exercising on my bike and taking care of my butterfly garden.”
Last summer, while on a trip, she said she spotted a pair of brass quails at an antique shop and bought them, thinking she’d keep one and give one to the club’s leadership as a symbol of peace, if a mutually beneficial compromise could be reached.
The quails are still sitting in her office.
“As a former Department of Justice and law firm attorney, I know negotiation works best,” Letitia said. “When parties get locked in tactical fights, it delays solutions, increases costs, and moves everyone further from the real issues. Professionals may have incentives to prolong disputes. Homeowners do not. We want a fair, timely resolution that restores peace in our neighborhood.”
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Laura Layden is a senior business and government reporter. Reach her by email at laura.layden@naplesnews.com.
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This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News: Collier County golf course fence rules spark debate. What’s next?
Reporting by Laura Layden, Fort Myers News-Press & Naples Daily News / Naples Daily News
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