Developer to pursue Riviera project

Officials with MDG Capital announced Thursday they will press on with their plans to build an affordable housing complex within the Riviera Golf Estates community in East Naples.

MDG Capital, well-known for its Immokalee affordable housing project called Arrowhead Reserve, issued a statement read by President Bill Klohn that urged members of the 55-and-over community to work with them to build the new homes while still preserving lake views.

Riviera Golf Estates consists of 692 manufactured and single- family homes, which wind around the Riviera Golf Club, an 18-hole public golf course.

MDG developers came to an agreement last month with the current owners of the golf course, a group of five investors from Minnesota, to buy the land, as long as Collier County commissioners agree to rezone the course to accommodate residences. Klohn said he plans to construct 1,200 to 1,500 affordable housing condominiums on the golf course, two stories tall or higher.

The proposal was swiftly met with angry protests from Golf Estates residents, Commissioner Donna Fiala, who represents the area on the Collier County Commission, and the East Naples Civic Association.

Residents said an original contract signed when the community was created in 1974 guaranteed the golf course would remain intact in perpetuity. Last month, they hired attorney Patrick White, of the Porter, Wright, Morris & Arthur law firm, to find out how and when that promise was deleted from the contracts.

“We do not seek any litigation approach,” said Patrick McCuan, chairman of MDG Capital. “It is the community’s absolute right to pursue litigation, but it is our hope that we can sit down with them and avoid that.”

Klohn said attorneys for MDG are studying the original contracts and title agreements, and hope to come to some conclusions within 30 days. Klohn said they are trying to determine whether the clause that prevented the development of the golf course has expired during the past 32 years.

“The important thing today, and in the coming weeks, is to agree upon the facts,” he said.

“Once we have all the facts, we want to sit down with the leaders in the Riviera Golf community, and address these facts.

“We’re willing to work with homeowners for as long as it takes.”

The sentiment comes as little comfort for Golf Estates residents, who have banded together with neighboring communities to block the sale and development of the golf course. Kay Randazzo, president of the Estates Homeowners Association, said she will meet with developers, but finds it very unlikely they will be able to strike a compromise.

“I think most of our people feel it would destroy our community, no matter what goes in there,” she said. The golf course “is not just in the middle of us, it’s entwined throughout us.

“We want to keep things just as they are.”

Association members, along with Fiala, said the development would destroy their golf course views, for which they paid inflated prices, and decrease their property values. They also worry that the addition of families with small children making noise will disrupt their way of life.

Fiala also questioned the safety of adding up to 3,000 vehicles to roads that older residents with wheelchairs and ailments use each day.

Klohn said he is sensitive to residents’ concerns, but has a community with a greater need in mind. He quoted Cormac Giblin, housing coordinator for the county, who reported there are 30,000 households in Collier in need of affordable housing.

Lisa Koehler, spokeswoman for the county’s community development department, said the number does not necessarily indicate that 30,000 new affordable housing units are needed. The 30,000 refers to the number of residents whose rent or mortgage payments exceed 30 percent of their gross income, she said.

“The problem people have is with the word ‘affordable,’ but what we’re seeing is a lack of housing,” Koehler said. “You have professionals, like teachers and police officers... living in this community that can’t afford to buy anything.”

Fiala said she believes the number of affordable housing units needed in the county has been over-exaggerated by county staff members. She listed several apartment and condominium complexes throughout the county that are affordable, but were not included in the tally of affordable units available.

“We keep talking about this crisis, but then you look at all the affordable homes that haven’t been counted,” Fiala said. “All of a sudden, it’s not a crisis, and they don’t have to invade people’s yards.”

Klohn said he hopes to begin talks with Golf Estates residents sometime next month.