Collier County Planning Commission unanimously voted Jan. 4 to recommend approval of 305 multifamily rental units on Immokalee Road, less than 2 miles east of Collier Boulevard.
The agricultural-zoned site would require a small-scale growth management plan amendment to establish the 37-acre piece of land as the JLM Living East Residential Overlay. The property is in between the LaMorada community and Ventana Pointe development and across Immokalee Road from Heritage Bay.
JLM is an Austin-based private investment firm established in 1992, but JLM Living was founded in 2021 to address a lack of affordable housing.
“Our goal is to develop upwards of 10,000 units nationwide,” JLM Living CEO Dan Diechert said.
The residential project is proposed to have horizontal single-family rental units, both attached and detached, and duplex buildings. Units won’t be stacked on top of each other.
“There’s a large number of folks who don’t want to live in an apartment anymore but can’t afford a house, and this provides kind of a bridge between those two products,” Diechert said.
Land-use attorney Rich Yovanovich said 30% of the units are planned to be income restricted, with half being below 80% of the county’s average median income and the other half below 100%.
The proposed master plan changed as an outcome of neighborhood information meetings with comments from concerned residents of both LaMorada and Ventana Pointe. As a result, there will only be one-story units on the west side closest to LaMorada, and there will be an extended boundary line with a preserve on the east side of the project near Ventana Point.
Commission Chair Edwin Fryer brought forward the idea of providing initial notification to services personnel, such as police, teachers and active-duty military, for the opportunity to rent the income-restricted units with JLM agreeing.
A handful of public speakers at the meeting were present and expressed concerns about traffic and potential privacy issues. Krysta Sylvester, who lives in Ventana Pointe, said allowing two-story houses on the eastern side of the property, adjacent to her community, could allow those on the second story to peer into her and her neighbors single-story homes.
“I don’t think that that’s adequate. I don’t think that’s going to work for us, and privacy-wise even if you put up a couple of trees, a two-story home is still going to be a problem,” Sylvester said.
Doug Brown, general manager of the Heritage Bay Golf Club, said although he has concerns about traffic impact, he thinks that the income restricted housing will be a great benefit.
“I highly support low-income housing and the ability to take any one of my 170 employees and find a place within an hour of our establishment,” Brown said.
Five conditions came out of the discussion including the one-story requirement on the west side of the property and the required distances between the front of the buildings and the sidewalks. These conditions will be finalized between county staff and the developers and will be brought forward to the Board of County Commissioners at a later date.
