Naples Park residents against sidewalk project

The community where a sidewalk project may go isn’t going to let it pass without a fight.

Collier County wants a sidewalk project between Vanderbilt Beach Road and 109th Avenue North, but the people who live in Naples Park said they are overwhelmingly against the sidewalk.

They feel the plan is being shoved down their throats.

So much so that Chris Carpenter did a survey of Naples Park neighbors and found 86% are against the plan.

“When I found out, my first question was why wasn’t I notified?” said Robert Lepo, Naples Park neighbor.

“It’s a Naples Park I don’t feel like I belong in. It’s going to be too urban for me, and it’ll be time for me to move,” Carpenter said.

They believe there’s no need and said there’s already a sidewalk on the west side of Vanderbilt Beach Drive.

“People wanted to help, so they started to circulate the survey, and there were a lot of them,” Carpenter said.

There was a meeting about the sidewalks hosted by the county on Thursday, and Marion Gregory was fired up.

“However they planned this, they didn’t let the residents know what was happening. They kept it on the back burner for whatever reason. I don’t know,” Gregory said.

“I have ten windows that are 4-foot by 8-foot windows, so I could enjoy the sunset and so I could get light in my house to save on my utility bill,” Gregory said.

She likes her privacy and wants to keep it that way.

“That’s not going to slow the people down. They’re going to see in better, directly into my second floor,” Gregory said.

And this isn’t the first time the issue has come up. It did so in 2003, then again in 2013.

Thursday’s meeting started at 5 p.m. at Veterans Community Park. Residents, business representatives, and visitors stopped by to review the project displays and talked one-on-one with county staff.