The following contains excerpts from an April 1, 2012, article in the Naples Daily News entitled “Construction in SW Florida exploded beginning in 1980s.”
The showdown had been brewing for months before the date was finally set for a Wednesday night in March.
More than a thousand construction workers, real estate agents, developers and their lawyers converged on the auditorium at Lely High School and spilled into the hallway. On stage, Collier County commissioners sat ready to vote on new laws meant to rein in growth. The show of force was meant to stave off tighter restrictions.
“There was a lot of testosterone bouncing around that place,” said Mike Carr, Sr., a Naples real estate broker who was in the audience that night. “They were excited.”
It was 1990, and Collier County was growing up. The 1980s started with the county’s population at 86,000. By 1982, it had passed the 100,000 mark on its way to 197,000 by 1995.
A realization was dawning
Road construction had not kept up. The low-key town everybody had come to Naples to enjoy had started to experience big-city traffic. The boom became a backlash as Collier County wrestled with its self-image.
County officials had moved a final vote on the new growth laws from the County Commission chambers to the high school auditorium. They expected a big crowd. They got a circus.
A caravan of hundreds of construction vehicles circled the county government center, blowing their horns, before heading to the hearing, tying up rush-hour traffic. Cement mixers and well drilling rigs stood watch in the parking lot. Inside, drywall hangars walked up and down the aisles on their stilts. Workers carried signs stenciled with “No Moratorium.” The crowd booed when a slow-growth proponent stepped to one of the microphones to make his pitch.
The workers won a backhanded victory
As the night grew late, commissioners adopted compromise versions of the laws the building industry favored, but the path to Collier County’s future had turned a corner.
“Don’t East Coast the West Coast” and “Make Growth Pay for Growth” became the bumper sticker mantras for the era, the root of present-day complaints that Collier County is too anti-business.
Starting in 1985, the county adopted impact fee after impact fee – charges on new construction to pay for roads, parks, libraries, a jail and emergency medical services.
A construction industry rally on the courthouse steps was not enough to turn the tide. Builders longed for the days when the permit counter was a more friendly place.
“You just went in and said, ‘I’m going to build, I need a building permit,’ and away you’d go,” Naples Lumber and Supply chief operating officer Dave Weston said.
Source: Naples Daily News.
This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News: From the Archives: Collier County reacts to 1980s construction boom
Reporting by Naples Daily News / Naples Daily News
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By Naples Daily News | USA TODAY Network
