It's About Growth: Filling in the Gaps

Like the concept of smart growth, infill development can be

defined in several ways. For many, it means developing vacant areas within an

urban setting that have been previously bypassed by growth, or tearing down

older buildings to construct new ones.

As sprawl continues, some developers are taking a second

look at the remaining, often smaller, properties within city limits; and a

handful of infill developments are cropping up.

Filling in the Blanks

Because most communities in Southwest Florida are not old

enough to need redevelopment, most infill focuses on vacant parcels. In Lee, a

lot of properties are ripe for infill development because the county did not

start from an urban center and spread outward. Instead, it has grown by spurts,

says Paul O’Connor, director of the county’s division of planning. He’s been

seeing infill projects on smaller commercial parcels along U.S. 41.

Some parcels that might not traditionally be considered for

infill become prime areas as the years roll on and circumstances change, says

Wayne Falbey, chairman of the Urban Land Institute’s Southwest Florida District

Council. For a long time land west of Interstate 75 along the Colonial Boulevard

corridor “just sat there. Now all of a sudden, it’s getting a tremendous amount

of interest.”

A similar area in Collier County lies along Golden Gate

Parkway west of Airport-Pulling Road. There, The Lutgert Cos. and Barron

Collier Cos. are building the pricey Estuary, the final phase of the Grey Oaks

community. Developed in a former U-pick field, Estuary homesites start in the

low $800,000s, villas at $1.6 million and single-family homes at $4 million.

The Bonita Bay Group’s luxurious Mediterra, located off Immokalee Road in North

Naples, is another residential project that Falbey considers an infill

development.

In Lee, Grosse Pointe Development touts its new community,

Bell Tower Park, as representative of “the newest trend in the housing industry,

utilizing in-town, infill parcels of land.” A press release for the 136-acre

development, which will be located near Bell Tower Shops in Fort Myers, adds

that such infill housing projects “can be promoted as cures to suburban

sprawl.”

Perhaps infill developments can help cure sprawl, but some

projects face challenges, especially when they’re planned near a population

base, O’Connor says. For example, when a developer planned to build a high-rise

in a North Fort Myers area where similar high-rises already exist, residents

protested, citing traffic congestion and potential problems with already weak

water pressure. Those issues could have been rectified, O’Connor says, but the

proposal was defeated.

Infill development can’t help cure sprawl when zoning regulations

pro-hibit mixed-use developments, Falbey says. “Infill is going to play an

increasingly important role in Southwest Florida, but things are going to have

to give way, mainly regulators,” he says. “They’re going to have to encourage

it.”

The Redevelopment Effect

Some local redevelopment projects have proven successful in

creating mixed-use districts that embrace both residential and commercial

uses—such as apartments above retail shops or offices in downtown areas.

Infill “makes for a healthier urban area,” says Collier

County principal planner Amy Taylor. Other proponents say advantages include an

increase in the city’s tax base and a reduced crime rate.

Recent redevelopment projects in Old Naples and along Fifth

Avenue have been successful. In addition, the Buckley Mixed-Use District is

intended to incorporate commercial and multi-family residential uses in an area

north of Orange Blossom Drive off Airport-Pulling Road.

But redevelopment efforts do have challenges. Some resist

mixed-use zoning for fear that traffic, noise and urban byproducts will impinge

on the safety and comfort of residents. Others, including Falbey, fault the

Naples City Council for enacting restrictions on height and density,

requirements for more parking and green space, and other regulations that have

forced up costs.

The Challenges: Costs, Regulations and Land Supply

For developers, it’s often more attractive to work from

scratch—to buy agricultural land, for instance, lay down infrastructure and

build from the ground up. The land is cheaper, and it’s less expensive to

install new infrastructure there than to venture into the urban core and

rebuild, Falbey says. Now there’s not much land left, and density and other

regulations are scaring developers away from infill projects.

As a result, green-field development that uses parcels on

the edge of an urban area comprises a lot of the projects here. “They are not

necessarily surrounded by existing development and it’s basically your new

development out on the urban fringe,” O’Connor says.

So what role does Collier’s much-vilified Urban Boundary,

which was established a couple of decades ago to prevent suburban sprawl, have

on infill development?

Falbey sees it as a tool used to keep people from moving to

the area. Density restrictions prevent development east of the boundary, and

other regulations discourage development or redevelopment within it, he says.

Planner Taylor contends that a continuing supply of land,

made available through rezoning and other machinations, has discouraged infill

development, not the regulations. The Urban Boundary, which lies roughly a mile

east of Collier Boulevard (County Road 951), specifically addresses the infill

concept, Taylor says. “Density beyond there, aside from Golden Gate, is quite

low,” she says.

As long as there’s a supply of developable land, developers

aren’t likely to look at redevelopment opportunities, as few have taken up the

incentives Collier offers to developers who build on certain infill lands,

Taylor says. “We keep being told the market will take care of that; when

they’re ready to develop the infill, they will. The reason the market doesn’t

take care of it is because we keep growing north and east,” she says. “So it

slows the chances of it ever being redeveloped in a timely fashion.”