Proposed road has some in Naples Park nervous

The 156 homeowners at the Pavilion Club Condominiums in North Naples are concerned about the potential effects of 8½ Street, one of the proposed improvements in the controversial Naples Park Community Plan, the condo association president contends.

Pavilion Club property owners say they fear their gated community surrounded by hedges is not enough to keep Collier County from implementing a project in neighboring Naples Park that could potentially seize some Pavilion property.

And some Pavilion homeowners are upset with the way the county has handled the planned upgrades outlined in the Naples Park proposal.

They believe the issue about whether 8½ Street should come to fruition also applies to Pavilion Club residents and fear if the project goes through, that would mean eminent domain for at least a portion of the Pavilion property.

"The owners at the Pavilion Club are extremely concerned about the plan ... which would take parking places from our complex and land from our preserve," said Doris Jean Rand, president of the Pavilion Club Condominium Association.

County Commissioner Frank Halas, who represents the North Naples district, recently said that 8½ Street "will never happen through (the Pavilion) community."

"I don't think it will ever happen in Naples Park," Halas said. "There is no way you're going to get a road through there."

Pavilion condo owner Al Krupa is worried about potential changes to his community.

"When they take this away from us, we will no longer have the green space that the county requires," said Krupa, a resident for a decade.

The proposed 8½ Street would go through 91st Avenue and the Pavilion Shopping Center, which neighbors the Pavilion Club condos.

In June, Rand wrote a letter to Halas expressing her concerns.

Halas responded to Rand in writing, assuring her that "if this part of the plan were to even be considered, it would require your community's support, which it obviously does not have," his letter read.

The planned 8½ Street would be in the 800 block from 111th to 91st avenues. The plan calls for condominiums on the west side and commercial buildings on the east side of the new street. The new road would also be designed "pedestrian friendly, with on-street parking, and be faced with mixed or townhouse development," according to the plan.

The county has asked Naples Park property owners to vote on a community public opinion survey -- paid for by the taxpayers -- intended to measure whether area residents favor the neighborhood upgrades.

Some Pavilion Club homeowners have expressed disdain because the surveys were not sent out to them even though the issue of 8½ Street affects them.

"It's an undemocratic way of doing it," said George Pacanovsky, an area property owner for 16 years.

Pat Haggerty, a Pavilion homeowner for five years, said 8½ Street would not benefit anyone in the area.

"A lot of people in Naples Park wouldn't be using it," she said of the proposed road.

Homeowner Fred McSweeney said the new street would expose residents at the Pavilion Club to danger.

"The community was built in 1988 and it's secluded. A lot of people don't even know it's here," he said. "If they put a road through here, our security and value would recede dramatically."

Naples Park extends from 91st Avenue North to 111th Avenue North and is west of U.S. 41 North. Pavilion Club is directly behind the Pavilion Shopping Center on 91st Avenue.

The estimated cost for the Naples Park Community Plan has been set at $10,000 per lot, according to Dover, Kohl & Partners, the firm that conducted a community study of the area. At nearly 2,700 lots, the project's cost would be about $27 million.

John Austin is founder of the Naples Park Coalition for Community Involvement, a 1,500-member, grass-roots group that opposes sprucing up the neighborhood.

Austin said there is a reason why 8½ Street is among the proposed improvements outlined in the community improvement plan.

"If (the county) got the plan in, 8½ Street would be a steppingstone for the developers," he said. "They want U.S. 41 North so bad they can taste it. Their prize is to get 41 and build a two-story building along with townhouses and condominiums."

The coalition, Austin said, believes the addition of 8½ Street is a smokescreen so those developers seeking prime real estate can "force people out of their homes."

"If they get their foot in the door with 8½, it's c'est la vie for the people in the eighth block," Austin said.

For months, the coalition has been battling county government and urging commissioners to stop the proposed restoration effort at once.

Another group, the Property Owners of Naples Park, initiated the proposed upgrades, which cost taxpayers $250,000 to foot the bills for the community study. Nearly $18,000 in additional county money was paid to a consultant, whose job has been to draft, mail out and tabulate the county survey.

Jim Trullinger is the consultant with Trullinger Associates Inc., an East Naples market research firm that conducts public opinion polls among other services. Recently, Trullinger said he had received 1,000 responses from Naples Park property owners who have returned completed surveys. Tabulation of those results is scheduled for mid-December.

Trullinger said he did not recall whether the county had mentioned details about sending the survey out to the 156 condo owners from the Pavilion Club. He said he was instructed to send surveys to a list of Naples Park property owners provided by the county.

County officials who supplied Trullinger the Naples Park list of property owners were unavailable for comment.

Halas, however, said he did not support Pavilion Club property owners voting on the Naples Park Community Plan survey because "they were not involved in that."