Waiting, business park given extension

Developers of the Rookery Bay Business Park were granted more time Tuesday by the Collier County Commission in their appeal to get an extension on one of their projects before it “sunsets,” or lapses.

Bruce Anderson, the development’s attorney, said the continuance was requested because the project has a pending environmental permit.

The hearing was moved to July 25.

The ASGM Business Center of Naples project is a Planned Unit Development, off Collier Boulevard, south of U.S. 41.

PUD projects have to meet Land Development Code standards within three years to get approval or else the project is “sunsetted,” or stopped.

Project owners can try to get rezoned or get an extension if a project is sunsetted. Based on the land code, about 10 acres of the project should have been developed by October 2005.

The 40.88-acre project was zoned to be a PUD in October 2002, which means that the project sunsetted in October 2005, if there were no interruptions during the period.

The Collier County land code has a provision that allows for suspension of the sunset period in case of a moratorium or “other action of government.”

In February, the Board of Zoning Appeals heard the company’s petition for a two-year extension to the sunset period because of the pending environmental permit. The zoning appeals board rejected the request on grounds that it is the developers’ fault that they didn’t attempt to obtain approval of a site development plan.

Because there was no attempt by the developer to obtain approval, the county couldn’t take any action to accept or prevent the development, according to a letter from the county Community Development and Environmental Services Division, responding to the developer’s request.

Along with the pending permit, the developer’s attorney said that a development moratorium was put in place at a June 24, 2004, commissioners’ meeting and that shouldn’t count toward the sunset period.