East Naples Civic Association
ENCA
ENCDP Implementation Meeting
May 2021
Sunshine Week Celebrating Government Transparency
March 2021
Lots of bright sunny days are in the forecast for Southwest Florida, but “Sunshine Week” is not about our beautiful weather.
Sunshine Week (March 15-21, 2021) is observed annually in Collier County to promote the importance of open government and to celebrate the people’s right to access public meetings and public records. The observance, which is held in mid-March to coincide with the anniversary of James Madison’s birth, serves as a reminder that a well-informed citizenry is essential in order to have an honest and accountable government. At their meeting held on March 9, 2021, Collier County Commissioners recognized the week with a proclamation.
“Sunshine week is an opportunity for all those in local government to reaffirm our commitment to providing our citizens with open, transparent and honest governmental operations,” said Clerk Crystal Kinzel. “Year round, but especially during Sunshine Week, I encourage residents to be active, engaged members of our community.”
The Office of the Collier County Clerk is responsible for recording, safeguarding, and providing access to public records, including:
Public access to records is not limited to weekday office hours; thousands of records can easily be viewed and printed day or night at www.CollierClerk.com. While providing quicky and easy access to public records is among our highest priorities, the Collier Clerk’s Office is also committed to protecting from disclosure all legally confidential, sealed, and exempt information in accordance with statutes and court orders.
For more information, contact Mike Sheffield, Director of Community Relations and Outreach at (239) 252-6879.
Sunshine Week (March 15-21, 2021) is observed annually in Collier County to promote the importance of open government and to celebrate the people’s right to access public meetings and public records. The observance, which is held in mid-March to coincide with the anniversary of James Madison’s birth, serves as a reminder that a well-informed citizenry is essential in order to have an honest and accountable government. At their meeting held on March 9, 2021, Collier County Commissioners recognized the week with a proclamation.
“Sunshine week is an opportunity for all those in local government to reaffirm our commitment to providing our citizens with open, transparent and honest governmental operations,” said Clerk Crystal Kinzel. “Year round, but especially during Sunshine Week, I encourage residents to be active, engaged members of our community.”
The Office of the Collier County Clerk is responsible for recording, safeguarding, and providing access to public records, including:
- Court judgements and other court records
- Official land records such as deeds and liens
- Wills and marriage licenses
- Financial records and audits
- Minutes and records of the Board of County Commissioners
Public access to records is not limited to weekday office hours; thousands of records can easily be viewed and printed day or night at www.CollierClerk.com. While providing quicky and easy access to public records is among our highest priorities, the Collier Clerk’s Office is also committed to protecting from disclosure all legally confidential, sealed, and exempt information in accordance with statutes and court orders.
For more information, contact Mike Sheffield, Director of Community Relations and Outreach at (239) 252-6879.
Bayshore Gateway Triangle CRA Public Art Plan
February 2021
Bayshore Gateway Triangle Community Redevelopment Area (BGTCRA) is developing its first public art plan! The plan is aligned with the vision statement for the BGTCRA:
Promote quality of life and economic vitality with a mixed-income, urban, multi-modal community that welcomes visitors, cultivates the area’s artistic and cultural identity, uplifts unique local destinations, and finds balance with the natural environment.
This public art plan for BGTCRA advances the County Arts and Culture Strategic Plan goals and the commitments to the Collier community by (a) elevating the area as an arts destination, (b) strengthening Collier County’s arts and cultural ecosystem, and (c) further implementing the Community Redevelopment Plan.
Please assist us! Review the draft plan and provide comments! You can view the entire Bayshore Gateway CRA Plan at: https://cpg.konveio.com/bayshore-gateway-triangle-cra-public-art-plan
Collier County Survey Request
January 2021
Please don’t delay, fill out the survey today!
Surveys can be completed electronically at:
Collier County is in the midst of preparing its 2021-2025 Five-Year Consolidated Plan, 2021 Annual Action Plan, and Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing Choice as required by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) under federal regulations. The Consolidated Plan identifies community needs and provides a five-year strategy for how HUD grants will be used to develop community resources that address those needs. This document provides essential information to policy makers, administrative staff, housing providers, lenders, and fair housing advocates, and assists in building public support for fair housing efforts.
Collier County would like to hear from residents, service providers, business owners, and other interested parties on the housing, community, and economic development needs and resources of the community. This feedback will be used to help the County structure its Community Development Block Grant (CDBG), HOME Investment Partnership (HOME), Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG) program priorities for the next five years. This survey will also assist in identifying residents’ fair housing concerns, such as acts of discrimination or barriers that might limit the housing choices of families and individuals.
Please take a few minutes and complete this confidential questionnaire to the best of your ability. If you are unsure of an answer or the question does not apply to you, please feel free to skip that question. Thank you for your assistance. Responses will be accepted until Friday, February 5, 2021.
ENCA Year in Review
December 2020
East Naples Community Development Plan
October 2020
Commentary: Housing, Economic Diversity Matter to Millennials
By Jacob Winge, Director, East Naples Civic Association
Published in Naples Daily News on July 21, 2018
There’s been a lot of talk and little action during the reign of this current Collier County Commission. Every day we pay for another study and hire another team of consultants and then three or four months later we get an action plan to solve some issue and then totally reject it and go back to the cycle of hiring attorneys, consultants and planners.
One issue in particular is “affordable housing.” The term is only used by county leaders to skew the number of housing units in commission districts where the current county government and Habitat for Humanity organization either own land, want to buy land or have alternative sites (parks) available to turn to housing.
This doesn’t take into respect other sources of market housing that is affordable. In an East Naples Civic Association analysis of ZIP codes 34104, 34105, 34112, 34113 and 34114, it was determined that East Naples has more than 50 percent of dwellings valued at $250,000 or less as compared to the county. Spread throughout the county, there are at least 1,440 approved homes Habitat has built in East Naples not represented by the plan; it’s safe to surmise other commission district numbers have been swollen or suppressed to support staff’s recommendations, over the betterment of our community.
The focus is on building “affordable housing” in East Naples, particularly in the Bayshore arts district and along U.S. 41 East. Yet, the one thing that stands out is the lack of economic diversity. There are no jobs in these areas; storage units, a few small auto repair shops and some minor outlying retail areas. There are no hotels, no business complexes for new industry, just blighted, empty, old shopping centers decaying away along with the infrastructure in the area, beckoning for the return of Kelly Road and the impoverished, crime-riddled area surrounding it.
County leaders should focus on housing, but focus it where the jobs are, where people can have shorter commutes and not clog up arterial roads for 30- to 60-minute commutes on U.S. 41, Collier Boulevard, Pine Ridge Road and Airport-Pulling Road. We have some great business sectors in North Naples, with a job density ratio over twice that of similar areas in East Naples.
North Naples doesn’t have housing that’s affordable; neither does the city of Naples. This forces the majority of northbound traffic onto U.S. 41 and westbound traffic onto Pine Ridge Road throughout the day as many workers have shifts which create multiple work traffic times on these roads. If there was workforce housing in North Naples and Naples, we would see an immense shift in traffic problems.
Incentivizing the growth of mixed-income housing around activity centers should be encouraged only where the needs of economic diversity, infrastructure and commercial resources are met to support the increase in population.
Unfortunately for Collier citizens, young families and workers, commissioners have ganged up to keep a NIMBY mentality of keeping housing that is affordable out of certain districts and piling it up all in one area; 52 percent of it exists in East Naples, while the overwhelming majority of the jobs are located miles to the north.
For the sake of our infrastructure, county leaders must shift the focus of taxpayer dollars, particularly over $1 million of community redevelopment grants, away from multimillion-dollar nonprofits which only buy land and build low-income communities that teachers, firefighters, EMS and small business owners don’t qualify for, and instead use those funds to redevelop business and commerce zones in East Naples, build up a world-class Bayshore arts district and create an environment for economic diversity and, in time, housing that is affordable for those workers.
Winge is a member of the board of directors of the East Naples Civic Association.