Florida agencies will take a look at a proposed new residential overlay on a 229-acre property in east Collier County that will allow almost 1,300 single-family and multi-family homes that include affordable housing.
It’s another step toward FL Star Development and Habitat for Humanity of Collier County getting approval for two communities planned at the northeastern intersection of Greenway and Fritchey roads, about a half mile north of Tamiami Trail East.
The Board of County Commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday, June 24, in favor of transmitting to the state proposed amendments to the Collier County Growth Management Plan, creating the Greenway-Fritchey Residential Overlay. The overlay would allow a maximum of 1,299 single family and multifamily residential units with affordable housing. It also would allow a reduction in the littoral shelf planting requirements. A littoral shelf is the area between the body of water and the banks surrounding it.
Commissioners and the county planning board will see the amendments again for hearings and final approval, along with the site plans and details for the proposed community as a planned unit development, or PUD, and hear from experts on littoral shelf needs, said Collier County Planning and Zoning Director Mike Bosi and the developers’ attorney Richard Yovanovich.
“We’re not picking wallpaper out for these units yet,” Commissioner Rick LoCastro (District 1) said. “This is a state transmittal. I haven’t seen the project yet in its entirety. We’re not voting on what we’re doing to the clubhouse or where the roads are going to be. …. This is just part of the legal process that allows it to go to the state.”
Two tracts, two communities with a connecting sidewalk
FL Star and Habitat for Humanity are partners in the Greenway Fritchey development, which is two proposed communities on two different tracts of the property with plans for an interconnecting sidewalk. The land is just across from Sandpiper Drive, known as the back entrance to the Fiddlers Creek Community. The new communities if approved would build 5.72 dwelling units per acre, less than the 12.29 per acre that could be allowed for affordable housing.
The land is in the Rural Fringe Mixed Use District, made up of 77,000 acres located east of Collier Boulevard. The original plan for this area was adopted in 2002, according to the county’s website. The district includes transfer of development rights, or TDRs, which allow landowners in what are called sending areas – areas not suited for development – to obtain and sell their TDR credits to developers in the receiving areas, where development has been determined suitable.
Because of the affordable housing component, TDR purchases aren’t allowed.
Habitat for Humanity owns the entire acreage and plans 260 for-sale affordable housing residential units that will make up 20 percent of the project. David Torres, chief executive officer of FL Star Development, is building the at-market community with 1,039 units.
“Thou shalt not utilize TDRs for affordable housing,” said Commissioner Bill McDaniel (District 5). But he would like to talk more about TDRs in the district “with regard to the lack of the consumption of TDRs and the value of those TDRs. Those TDRs were offered up to folks that were designated as sending area and some theory of compensation for the lack of property rights that went away when the rural Friends mixed use district was established.”
McDaniel said he also would like to hear from experts on the littoral shelf and alternative power at the community clubhouse, as well, when the time comes.
Neither developer has determined exactly what will be built, whether all single-family homes, a combination of single-family and multi-family homes and then townhomes, apartments, condos or a combination, representatives told the Collier County Planning Commission in May. The commission recommended the Board of Collier County Commissioners transmit the proposal to the state, as did Collier County growth management staff, Bosi said.
What will the state do?
The Florida Department of Commerce’s state land planning agency will review the amendments for compliance with state growth management laws and rules. Other state agencies such as the Department of Environmental Protection also will review the amendments and provide comments.
If the state approves, the planning commission will hear the case again during an adoption hearing that will include a rezoning to the PUD. It would include specifics of what will be built ― single family, multi-family and what kind (townhomes, apartments, condos) and how many of each. After that, Collier commissioners will hold another hearing and have the final say.
This article originally appeared on Marco Eagle: State to review east Collier County project with affordable housing
Reporting by J. Kyle Foster, Naples Daily News / Marco Eagle
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