Does Redevelopment Mean Growing, Growing, gone?

It's the classic conflict between the pro-growth and no-growth segments, played out in a twenty-block stretch of asphalt and aspiration. On one side are the proponents of status quo: thinking, concerned citizens who are committed to a vision of small-town life as expressed in current zoning codes. On the other side, the proponents of change, also thinking, concerned citizens, who are committed also to a vision of small-town life, albeit one expressed in contemporary urban design.

The disparity of these visions has made for a duel of constitutional proportions, at least as much as possible for small-town government. Next month, on February 3, a voters' referendum will be conducted on two charter amendments. They will, for all intents and purposes, keep the main drag of Naples the low-rise, small-lot sort of place it is now. Staying within current zoning means no more density, which means little or no growth.

Supporters for change, pushing a bellwether redevelopment plan for an area called the 41-10 corridor, say the only way that their decreed-as-blighted area can be made habitable and productive is to increase the number of people using it. Those opposing say too many are using it now, and the area is bootstrapping itself quite nicely, thank you.

Who's On First?

Politicians, property owners, preservationists and Realtors are some of the hundreds of people passionately involved in this conflict. One city council candidate is basing his entire campaign on it. Friends and neighbors find themselves at odds. It's a Very Civil War.

The leadership is as follows:

On the pro-growth side--those who want to change the zoning codes to increase height and density--are Naples City Councilman Peter Van Arsdale and 41-10 Property Owners Association president Mark Weakley. Van Arsdale ("It will take a third-class neighborhood and make it a first-class neighborhood") owns a travel agency headquartered on the newly redeveloped Fifth Avenue South, outside the 41-10 area. Weakley ("We stand for good regrowth.") owns the Trail's End Motel, an adjacent office building and some vacant land, all within the 41-10 area.

On the no-growth side--the people who gathered the petition signatures to get the amendments on the ballot--are Naples City Councilman Fred Tarrant and Old Naples Association president Mary Brett.

Tarrant ("The people are fed up.") is the perennial fly in City Council's ointment: detractors call him cantankerous, and supporters call him a patriot. Brett ("We're opposed to taking the green spaces and turning it into parking spaces.") is a grassroots organizer who fears the loss of tree-lined friendly streets and Naples ambiance.

A fifth player is Realtor Pam Watson. Watson ("There's a balance; there has to be a balance.") sits on the steering committee of the 41-10 Redevelopment Committee and is a director of the Old Naples Association. Predictably, she is ambivalent, but not just out of diplomacy. Like most of Naples, she wants the best of both, and the worst of neither.

The Battle Lines

It is a serendipitous that Old Naples's petition drive got its no-growth amendments on the ballot now, according to Brett. Her organization had been campaigning for signatures for some time before the proposed 41-10 Master Plan became an issue. Old Naples Association is concerned by what it sees as a loss of park lands and other features closely identified with Naples life.

Specifically, Brett feels that Naples has grown successfully under current zoning regulations, and too-frequent variances granted by City Council, often driven by political rather than civic reasons. These too-frequent exceptions are why Naples is losing its ambiance.

"We are not opposed to redevelopment as long as it stays with zoning codes," she says. "We will not stand in the way of any development efforts that fall within current zoning."

The 41-10 corridor from Fifth Avenue South to Seventh Avenue North, is now a collection of buildings that have been mansarded, facaded, porticoed and more. It is this, plus a number of vacant gas stations, that kept 41-10's tax base from growing and resulted in the City of Naples declaring the area "blighted" in the early '90s.

Tarrant says the pro-growthers' motivation is greed. "It's money, pure and simple." He explains that property owners who now have the potential to build a 6,000-square-foot building will, under the new codes, be able to build a 24,000-square-foot building. "The value goes up tremendously with higher density."

While Van Arsdale concedes the problem has economic causes, he defends the solution, the 41-10 Master Plan, as ambiance-based. "The root of the problem is that the existing zoning makes it economically unfeasible to redo your buildings," he explains, but adds, "The whole plan is entirely driven by aesthetics."

Watson points to successful redevelopment that has occurred under the current zoning, as supported by Brett, Tarrant and The Old Naples Association. Showplaces include The Sea Court Hotel, The Paragon Professional Building and Preston's Steak House. Dr. Heitman, a private physician, has attractively re-done a building, too.

But according to Van Arsdale, Sea Court required numerous variances, the actions Brett's proposed amendments will take to the voters each time, for lot coverage, parking and setbacks. He says it more closely resembles the 41-10's proposed codes than the existing ones. And the other examples often have the very design flaws that contribute to the blight. He blasts the Paragon Professional Building as being "as pedestrian-oriented as the moon," raised up on poles with first-floor, on-site parking.

"If you like it," he says, "support the existing code."

"...As He Walked Into The Room..."

One of the tenets of the urban design proposed by the 41-10 group is to make walking from destination to destination the preferred mode of transportation, rather than driving, as in more suburban designs. 41-10 president Weakley says the reduced setbacks feared by many are exactly what make the plan work. "You need to put buildings on the streets," he says. "It makes the street feel much more room-like, and once it's more room-like, pedestrians will want to use it." He cites the ultra-suburban Coastland Mall and Pine Ridge-Airport roads activity centers as auto destinations that have no place in downtown Naples.

However, Weakley is not ready to junk all the cars. "We still recognize that autos need to come to the area." And in that, for Old Naples Association, lies the rub.

"If they go up four stories in that area, they will have a parking requirement of around 7,000 new spaces," says Tarrant. He raises a specter that inspires fear in the hearts of small town people everywhere. "They can't do it, no way in hell, unless they put a multilevel parking garage on every one of those 20 blocks."

Tarrant's specter extends to the city-owned rights-of-way in front of most of