NAPLES, Fla. — Handmade signs, anxious faces, and concerned voices filled the room Monday night at a New Hope Ministries in Naples.
It's the latest instance of a decades-long saga concerning the fate of the Riviera Golf Course.
Residents of Riviera Golf Estates showed up by the dozens, expressing their concerns to the property owners who want to convert a floodplain into new housing.
"The golf course is our floodplain in disguise, and we need it. Hence why this is so contentious."
Contentious, and raising a lot of questions - that attorney Richard Vonovich who represents the golf community's owner, La Minnesota Riviera, says will be answered.
“The documentation that we provide as part of the review of the conversion of the golf course will answer all of those questions.”
But after several hours of questioning from community members, not everyone feels the meeting was as productive as it could have been.
“The experts should have been here. I think the county process really warrants a lot more well constructed answers and really less kind of legal rhetoric. That is really what we heard tonight.”
The purpose of Monday's meeting was also to discuss an application submitted to the county which would allow more than three hundred new homes to be built right in the middle of the community.
Resident Carol Anne doesn't think it's the best idea.
“I know building is going on like crazy, but that’s bad for zoning and bad for the planning board, I think.”
“We all have to be concerned and participatory.”
