Jeff Lytle: Governments, economy hooked on super-heated property values

Collier County taxable property values are up 25 percent to $77 billion, while Lee's are up 38 percent to $88 billion.

This may help put the single-year rise in those preliminary figures in context.

Only six years ago, in an April 2000 column, we pointed out that a Collier surge had brought the taxable values of the two counties about even — at about $25 billion. Shocking, given the larger land mass and population that now lets Lee pull ahead — with help from Naplesization creeping northward.

Figures out this past week show a quadrupling of values in the past decade — for the second year in a row — and mark the ninth year in a row for double-digit increases.

Meanwhile, note the rise in homestead taxable values protected by Florida's Save Our Homes amendment. In Lee County, untaxed values are at $16.8 billion — up more than 96 percent in just one year. In Collier, the protected total is now $15 billion — up 77 percent. Those spikes affirm most of the rise in regional taxable value is not from new construction but from existing homes.

Then, with values even in Lehigh Acres soaring by 84 percent — on top of last year's 94 percent — we wonder why there is no affordable housing. Do high rollers in Vegas put their money in those machines that count pennies at supermarkets?

And our economies — and local governments' payrolls — depend on those values staying up there.

• The good news is Collier County has taken down the "No Parking At Any Time" sign that discouraged beachgoers bound for the public Seagate parking lot south of Clam Pass Park.

The bad news is that it took our publication of a picture of the sign, followed by personally showing it to the parks director, to make that happen.

The remaining bad news: The four tow-away warning signs in the same area, but across the street in the city of Naples, are still there.

The good news: The county says the city is talking to the condo owners who put up the signs about softening the language. Naples City Council member John Sorey says he's on the case.

• Differing with an earlier announcement that seasonal or yearly tickets would not be sold at the Sun-N-Fun La goon water park due to open this month on Livingston Road, Collier County now says it will — but only in October after the busy summer season.

Think about that. Isn't summer when most families might appreciate a break from the steep daily admission prices ($10 for adults, $5.50 for kids over 3)?

It's the same odd sense of public service that marred the opening of the Vanderbilt Beach parking garage. The county wanted to charge everyone — residents and visitors alike — $5 per visit, until cooler heads prevailed and residents' parking stickers were honored.

• Gut-check time for The Conservancy of Southwest Florida.

While it wants to be on the record as opposing Jack Antaramian's proposed private beach club on Keewaydin Island, it has also said it is open-minded and wants to wait and see.

Then comes the news this past week that Antaramian is willing to promise the club would not expand once it gets built.

Is that enough to swing the deal? Will a state environmental agency signing off give The Conservancy sufficient political cover to follow suit?

Keewaydin Island is synonymous with Conservancy activism for more than 40 years — and the fundamental question is whether a private beach club of any size belongs there at all.

We'll see how much conservation is in the mettle of The Conservancy and its new leadership.

• Our environmental values come full circle in two news items. One is about a hawk nesting in a downtown Naples tree because of a loss of habitat elsewhere.

Some of that "elsewhere" would be north of Immokalee Road where environmentalists are suing to block five developments that would destroy 1,500 acres of wetlands. Back in Naples, the sidewalk next to the tree is blocked off.

Then our true colors come out. The blockade is not out of concern for the hawks, but to protect pedestrians from further divebombings — and a lady who has already been attacked wants to keep things peaceful so she can retrieve her expensive prescription sunglasses from the nest.

• This is probably the last thing in the world that residents of Naples' Crayton Road want to hear, but only nine months after losing so many of their signature ficus and banyan trees, and with so much new sod and landscaping along their street, their neighborhood is looking pretty doggone nice.

It's not the way you want your neighborhood to take on an open, airy look, but still — pretty nice.

Too bad that traffic doesn't slow down to notice. The city reports a rash of speeding since since the loss of the shady, blissfully relaxing, tunnel-like tree canopy.