Collier commissioners opted not to amend controversial rules that allowed developers to convert golf course properties into residential.

Commissioners voted unanimously March 11 to let the 2017 rules stand.

“I don’t even know why we’re here,” said Vice Chair Dan Kowal, whose district had two conversions that prompted Bert Harris claim lawsuits. “It’s already Bert Harris proof.”

Dan Kowal

The rules prompted three lawsuits under the state Bert Harris Act by developers and property owners who contended they were overly burdensome. The 1995 Bert Harris Act states that if property owners can prove a governmental action “inordinately burdens” their property, they’re entitled to compensation.

Kowal noted nothing “ever came to fruition” with the lawsuits, one of which was settled in December and allowed the 82.5-acre Links of Naples Golf Course in East Naples to be redeveloped into 369 homes. The settlement reimbursed the developer for $250,000 in legal fees and allowed 122 more homes than what the developer proposed in 2023, when commissioners denied the development.

The March 11 vote came a month after Collier Circuit Judge Lauren Brodie ruled in favor of Riviera Golf Estates Homeowners Association, finding the developer, La Minnesota Riviera LLC, cannot convert the golf course until after Aug. 18, 2030. The developer filed an appeal with the state Courts of Appeal on March 10.

Brodie ruled a 2000 deed couldn’t become the “root deed,” until 30 years after it was recorded. Under Florida’s Marketable Record Title Act, that’s the period when all claims or encumbrances against a property would be extinguished, clearing the title.

Brodie’s ruling made the county’s remaining Bert Harris claim moot, but whether it stands will be up to the appellate court. The time to challenge Collier’s conversion rules has lapsed but would have reopened had commissioners amended them.

The amendment process began in 2023, after commissioners asked staff to clarify the conversion process to give the Board of County Commissioners discretion to modify the minimum average width for buffers if a golf course is next to a residential community, and to make it defensible against Bert Harris claims.

Planning & Zoning Director Mike Bosi noted the process contained prerequisites that went beyond other rezoning processes, so staff suggested eliminating those since that’s what triggered the lawsuits.

“What we arrived upon was a simple process,” Bosi said of reducing nine pages to two. “The reductions were pretty dramatic.”

After a preapplication meeting is held for a golf course conversion and before a developer could submit a rezoning application, he said, they’d be required to hold a neighborhood information meeting to promote a dialogue between residents and developer to seek compromises — the intent of the conversion process. Staff also clarified that a greenway — 100-foot buffer — would be required, but the Board of County Commissioners would make the ultimate decision over whether deviations could be granted.

But in August, the Planning Commission unanimously agreed staff needed to work on it further, contendint they’d used a “hatchet” and should have used a “scalpel” and could still face lawsuits from neighbors whose property values would be devalued because they’d lose their views of a golf course and open space.

At the meeting, several Riviera Golf Estates residents objected, and a Lakewood Golf Course representative sent county officials a letter urging them not to make changes.

Burt Saunders

Riviera Golf Estates resident Ron Flock told commissioners he was worried about their discretion in reducing the greenway buffer, which is an average of 100 feet but not within 75 feet in the original wording and was amended to an average of 50 feet. “That’s the only thing that really concerns me right now,” Flock said.

Peter Osinski, vice chair of the Riviera Golf Estates board and chair of its Golf Course Working Group, told commissioners 200 homes were purchased in Riviera Golf Estates since the regulations were enacted and many made their purchases with the understanding they were protected by the greenway and other conversion requirements.

“If changed, homeowners like me could bring Bert Harris claims,” Osinski said. “It’s a two-edged sword. … We say, ‘Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.’ We say, ‘Leave the baby as it is,’ and highly recommend that. There’s no reason to change and there’s also a consideration that you may open a Pandora’s box of new Bert Harris suits if you do.”

Before the unanimous vote, Commission Chair Burt Saunders made a motion to include a requirement that staff consider adding flexibility into the buffer requirements and to bring that back to the board for review. The motion failed. Saunders then seconded Kowal’s motion to let the process remain unchanged.