TELL CITY COUNCIL TO VOTE NO ON PROPOSED MASSIVE PARKING GARAGE IN HEART OF NAPLES RESIDENTIAL COMMUNITY

CPN ALERT!!!

TELL CITY COUNCIL TO VOTE NO ON PROPOSED MASSIVE PARKING GARAGE IN HEART OF NAPLES RESIDENTIAL COMMUNITY

CPN has joined a growing coalition of Naples residential organizations which have come together to urge the Naples City Council and the Naples Community Redevelopment Organization (CRA) to vote NO on a City Staff proposal to spend more than $15 million in scarce taxpayer dollars on a huge new parking garage in the heart of a Naples residential community at 4th Avenue South and 4th Street S.

The City Manager and the CRA staff intend to ask the Council and the CRA to vote to approve this massive garage project in late August – when many of our residents and voters are away.  They want to “fast track” the decision to make it a “done deal” — so that Naples voters will not have an opportunity to voice our concerns about this destructive project.

Here are some of the reasons why wasting more than $15 million in taxpayer dollars on the “4th&4th” garage is a bad deal for the voters and residents of Naples.  

  • The massive proposed garage is in the middle of a quiet residential neighborhood.

  • The City and the CRA (which is made up of the City Council members) will improperly siphon off $15 million of tax revenue from other needed City projects to build this project – using the bogus legal justification that the neighborhood of million dollar plus residences is “blighted”.

  • The garage is intended to subsidize and support already very successful commercial development and businesses on Fifth Avenue – when the “community redevelopment” funds are supposed to be used to redevelop impoverished areas, not wealthy developers on Fifth Avenue.

  • The garage is designed to attract and accommodate a significant influx of additional beach users — with traffic into and from the garage — on city streets that are already stressed with existing traffic congestion.

There is no question that a large public parking garage in this location would have a tremendous adverse impact on residents in Old Naples. and surrounding neighborhoods—from Park Shore to Port Royal and from Royal Harbor to Lake Park can be expected to be adversely impacted as well by the  sheer volume of traffic and congestion a 350-400 car public parking garage in this location would generate

Who is in the Coalition –  The Naples Garage Coalition is made up of homeowner organizations and voters asking the City Council and CRA to vote “NO” when this proposal comes up for a vote in August.  While the Coalition is still growing, we now include: The Old Naples Association (ONA), Coquina Sands Association, Lake Park, Kensington Gardens Condominium Association, Villa Verona Condominiums, Lantana in Old Naples Association, Inc., Poinciana Heights Condominium Association, Citizens for Preserving Naples (CPN), Protect Naples, Merchants of Downtown Ass’n, and River Park Community Leaders.

What we are asking you to do: 

Copy CPN on the e-mail — citizensforpreservingnaples@gmail.com

  • Sign up at the CPN Website —  http://citizensforpreservingnaples.org/ to make sure we can get you updates on this massive garage boondoggle and get your neighbors to sign up with CPN as well 

  • Go to the City meetings in mid-August. The contract is scheduled to be reviewed by the CRA at a special meeting on August 15th and we understand (we are trying to confirm this) that City Council will be reviewing the contract at the August 16, 2017, City Council Meeting. 

Web Site Launched to Update Members of the Community on the Project 

A special website has been launched by the coalition at www.44garage.com to update members of the community on the proposed project.

For additional information and or updates on the proposed garage or other proposed projects, please visit Citizens for Preserving Naples website at  www.citizensforpreservingnaples.org