Editorial: Ronto Development

With tens of thousands of potential homesites awaiting development approval east of Interstate 75, the Bonita Springs City Council appears to have made the best of a bad situation by making a big developer pay — big-time — to build in this region critical for traffic and environmental protection.

A sector with 500 acres and 1,601 units is the latest to win approval for the south side of Bonita Springs Road in the Worthington Country Club project. Two other segments were approved last June and now 3,600 homes have the green light for what is, for the most part, envronmentally sensitive hinterlands of the southern county.

In exchange for the latest zoning, the Ronto Group will pay $7.4 million in road impact fees and another $3.7 million in "super impact fees," with another $4.8 million waived for Ronto agreeing to widen Bonita Beach Road to four lanes for 4.5 miles east from Bonita Grande Drive for $28.5 million.

Worthington residents lobbied for more time to negotiate on drainage and sound impacts, but the council — even with three new growth-wary members aboard — decided to move forward, with Alex Grantt and Martha Simons in dissent.

In the end, it was the payout by the developer that swung the deal.

It goes to show that once an agreement is made to set a development in motion, it is hard to turn back. After the decision is made to allow a density boost in an area that should be left nearly alone, the best that citizens can hope for is a deal that makes fiscal sense.

Either City Council was swayed by money on zoning or raised the bar for development that is sure to follow. Only time will tell if the deal struck by the city and Ronto — for roadwork worth six times the impact fee waiver — is too good to be true.