Time to Reclaim the Strategic Plan

For many years now, residents have been complaining that some of the issues we see as today’s problems may well have been self-inflicted due to our own neglect as residents who should stay better informed.

We have spent tens of thousands of dollars here on the island for consultants to solve problems that we have created ourselves due to our neglect of the many studies done or not completed over the years.

When Rene Champagne stood before the six members of the council a few weeks ago as they struggled to choose a seventh member to fill the vacant spot that existed on the dais, he spoke to them regarding his thoughts on the issues of the day. Champagne really echoed the thoughts of a vast majority of residents on our island, and those comments were hard to hear.

Champagne had actually read the City’s Strategic Plan, which was created six years ago. That plan laid out a vision that we believed would take us from 2019 to 2034. If that vision were an actual vehicle today, it would be getting dangerously close to being driven into a ditch and needs an immediate dusting off and attention. We are already five years into the plan, and we are still struggling with how to effectively deal with our permitting process, but to be fair, so is Collier County.

The issues dealing with “Old Marco” are still on a back burner and several redevelopment projects are threatening to eliminate that “quaint old charm” which the Strategic Plan saw as a priority. What was even more disappointing was the continued reluctance to create a professional traffic study plan for the island. The one recently done for Old Marco as part of a consultant's report wasn’t even accomplished during the height of season, which greatly calls its legitimacy into question. The report itself fell short of any type of reasonable plan to maintain what the community was looking for and has been effectively discarded.

Newly appointed Planning Board Member Bradley Henson recently reported he had not been able to discover an island-wide traffic study being done in the last 12 years. That is irresponsible and negligent, in my opinion.

A simple ride down Bald Eagle Drive in the last couple of weeks would find parking on both sides of that substandard roadway from the intersection of Bald Eagle and Palm Street easterly to beyond the Pier 81 Condominiums. Even Palm Street has been heavily loaded with swale parking, and although not illegal, some of those vehicles' wheels and tires have been extending well into the roadway at times.

City Manager McNees, at a recent council meeting, reported that previous councils had deferred doing the state-mandated “Level of Service Reports” due to costs. Those reports are the backbone of determining whether growth is outstripping our ability to continue on track to meet the goals in our Strategic Plan as well as our Comprehensive Plan, which is mandated to supply to the State of Florida.

No one wants to see our vision for the island dissolve before our very eyes. As responsible citizens we have a duty to ensure that it never happens during our lifetimes. We can change the direction we’ve been heading without throwing the baby out with the bathwater, and it must be done sooner rather than later.

A reminder of those Seven Principles we desired to see maintained by 2034 in the Strategic Plan are as follows.

Principle 1: A Great Residential Community.

Principle 2: Maintaining a Small-Town Feel.

Principle 3: Maintaining a Beautiful Community.

Principle 4: World Class Beach and Natural Environment.

Principle 5: Maintaining Our Waterways.

Principle 6: Convenient Coastal Living.

Principle 7: PRIDE IN OUR COMMUNITY.