July 6, 2026, 12:01 p.m. ET
A developer has proposed building a private, members-only golf course on a 160-acre citrus grove in Collier County.Nearby residents have expressed concerns about the project’s impact on traffic, wildlife, and their quiet way of life.This new proposal follows the county commission’s rejection of a previous plan by the same developer to build 423 homes on the site.The developer argues the golf course is a less-intensive, more environmentally friendly alternative to housing, while residents want to preserve the agricultural land.
Many neighbors aren’t happy about a proposal to convert a decades-old citrus grove into a private, members-only golf course in Collier County.
Dozens of neighbors packed the house for an informational meeting on the plans, held June 25, at New Hope Ministries, off Davis Boulevard.
Nearby residents are concerned about the development’s impacts on traffic and safety, the environment and wildlife, and their overall way of life.
At times, the hearing got heated, with neighbors questioning the need for yet another private golf course and lamenting the potential loss of yet more wild and working agricultural land in the county.
The new plans by SWJR Naples LLC follow the county commission’s rejection of the same developer’s request to build 423 homes on the same property.
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In January, commissioners voted 3-2 to postpone a vote — and directed the developer and grove owners to seek less-intensive alternatives for the roughly 160-acre property, which sits off Sabal Road — about 1.4 miles east of Collier Boulevard.
The split vote came after a more than six-hour hearing, during which dozens of residents and environmental advocates voiced strong opposition to the housing, with concerns about urban creep.
The land proposed for development — at 341 Sabal Palm Road — is zoned agricultural, with a restricted density of one unit per 40 acres, because it’s within the Rural Fringe Mixed-Use District, with a protected status.
The property is in a “sending area” that limits traditional development.
Along with a golf course, the new plans would allow the developer to build recreational accessory uses, such as a clubhouse and a driving range, and up to 10 cabins for use only by members and their guests.
A more environmentally friendly proposal
Land-use attorney Rich Yovanovich led the neighborhood information meeting, which included a question-and-answer session following the development team’s formal presentations. He emphasized that the new plans would be far less impactful than housing, including on traffic and the environment, and suggested that they could even be more beneficial to wildlife than the citrus grove, including to the endangered Florida Panther, giving it more room to roam.
The golf course, he said, would be designed to meet the gold standards as a Certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary, which will require it to use less water, less fertilizer and less pesticides — and more eco-friendly turf.
“Go out to courses like Olde Florida, and you will see all the wildlife utilizing that golf course, while the golfers are actually on that golf course as well,” Yovanovich said. “So, golf courses are in fact very environmentally-friendly.”
The Olde Florida Golf Club, off Vanderbilt Beach Road, in North Naples, was one of the first golf clubs in Florida to be awarded theCertified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary designation in 1995. Several others in the county have achieved the designation.
The proposed golf course is expected to generate no more than 60 driving trips at the peak hour (in the late afternoon), which is “far less than was originally proposed as part of the residential development,” Yovanovich said.
While there are already many private golf courses and clubs in Southwest Florida, he stressed that they are all “very, very popular” with long waiting lists, and he argued there is demand for more.
“There is no question that this is financially feasible, and there’s a market for this golf course,” Yovanovich said.
After the formal presentations, when neighbors asked for more details about the plans, including the design of the golf course and clubhouse, the cap on and the cost of membership and the size and use of the cabins, Yovanovich said many of the finer details have yet to be worked out, in part due to the uncertainty over the county commission’s approval.
He stated that many of the details sought at the meeting weren’t relevant to or part of the required criteria for the approval of the petitions.
The cabins would likely have three to four bedrooms and be similar in size to a single-family house, but “we haven’t designed them yet,” Yovanovich said. They would not exceed an actual height of 45 feet, the typical height limit for residential development of this type in the county, he said.
As for the golf course itself, it’s not designed yet because that would cost “many hundreds of thousands of dollars to do, and the developer is not going to spend that money if we’re not going to get the required four votes from the board of county commissioners,” Yovanovich said.
As with the original development proposal for the property, the latest would require a Growth Management Plan (GMP) amendment in addition to a rezoning. To pass, a GMP amendment needs a supermajority vote of approval from four out of five commissioners.
The newly requested amendment would create the Sabal Palm Road Golf Course Subdistrict.
Several residents who attended the neighborhood meeting expressed skepticism over the true intent behind the rezoning request and questioned whether there might be an effort later to add permanent housing or to convert the cabins to traditional housing.
Yovanovich assured the crowd that the requested zoning and amendment would not allow traditional housing, and that any attempt to add it would require a new round of approvals from county commissioners.
If the county approves the proposed plans, he said, it wouldn’t be possible to add more cabins than requested either.
“It’s 10. That is it — 10,” Yovanovich reiterated.
Many of the neighbors who spoke in opposition to the plans live in nearby Verona Walk, off Collier Boulevard. That included Gwen Ransone, who argued there was no need or demand for a golf course off Sabal Palm Road, a two-lane street.
“This is not conducive to handle traffic,” she said. “The project will increase pollution, noise levels, disruption of our quiet, safe neighborhoods and wildlife. Once the land is rezoned, there’s no turning back.”
She begged the would-be developer to leave the land alone, and she suggested that it should be turned into a working farm with plants, vegetables or trees, contending it could support a lucrative agricultural business.
“This is special land,” she said. “This is ag, agricultural land. So, it’s precious, and there’s not much of it left in Naples.”
Others echoed those same sentiments, including Fred Miller, another resident of Verona Walk. As a child, he recalled visiting his grandmother and experiencing the citrus groves in South Florida. He commented that it seemed worth it to “preserve a little bit of the old Florida for future generations, rather than making it another playground for people who can ‘afford it.'”
“It’s one thing to have a playground that everyone can afford and enjoy. Especially, the people who live here year-round, not the people that fly in for a short visit,” then leave when the weather heats up, a hurricane approaches, or the mosquitoes get bad, Miller said.
He said he was surprised to see another development proposal come forward, as he thought the question had already been asked and answered months ago.
In answer, Yovanovich said the county commission never said the land couldn’t be developed.
“What happened was the commission said no to residential,” he said. “They asked us to go to, look at, other, less-intensive uses. That’s what we’ve done.”
Myriad concerns raised about the golf course
Neighbors expressed concerns about proper water drainage and flooding, increased wildfire risks and adequate road capacity and maintenance. Yovanovich worked to dispel those concerns and others, one by one, with the help of other experts on the development team.
One neighbor, Lisa Johnson, who lives off Logan Boulevard, said she often visits the citrus grove to pick up oranges and she couldn’t imagine golf members ever wanting to drive their Lamborghinis and Mercedes-Benzes down a narrow, bumpy road to get to the golf course.
“You’ll have to build a new road,” she said.
In reply, Yovanovich said that while the developer doesn’t plan changes or upgrades to Sabal Palm Road, if problems arise with the existing road, the developer would pay for the necessary improvements to support the golf course and attract members.
“That will happen,” he said.
Some neighbors questioned why the land could not be preserved and whether it had been adequately marketed to others who might be interested in protecting it, or at least continuing to use it for agricultural purposes.
There have been talks of the county buying the grove for conservation.
On May 12, county commissioners voted 3-2 to allow county staff to move forward with appraisals and negotiations aimed at preserving the property. Those negotiations could still lead to a purchase of the property through the taxpayer-funded Conservation Collier program.
In discussing the potential acquisition at the neighborhood meeting, Yovanovich said the county’s appraisals are likely to be done by July, after which an offer would likely be made to purchase the property through Conservation Collier.
Otherwise, he clarified that there hadn’t been a “single offer” by environmental groups, or anyone else interested in preserving it, despite what might have been represented to neighbors, or the public in general.
Citrus grove is no longer viable
The once thriving citrus grove is struggling to survive.
Previously, Henry Jacobs, an owner of the South Naples Citrus Grove, explained that for the better part of a decade, production had been declining dramatically, due to the devastating effects of the tree-killing citrus greening disease, for which there is no cure.
By 2023, the grove’s ownership found themselves beyond retirement age and searching for options after determining that citrus farming was no longer viable on the land. The search for options led to Jon Rubinton, a second-generation developer in Southwest Florida, who is behind SWJR Naples LLC, which now has the property under contract.
The family-owned and operated citrus grove has been around since 1979.
Since the grove’s establishment, citrus acreage has dwindled in Collier County, as it has statewide, especially over the last two to three decades. That’s due to citrus greening and other devastating diseases, frequent hurricanes and intense development pressure that has proved lucrative to many growers looking for a way out.
“I can tell you that the people who own this property would love to stay in the citrus business,” Yovanovich said. “They’re not selling this because they’re trying to make a quick buck. They’re selling this because basically the citrus industry in Florida, it’s not dead yet, but it’s dying. It’s a fact of life. It’s a sad fact of life, but that’s what’s happened.”
According to its website, the grove is currently closed as it usually is during the summer, but it plans to reopen in mid-November with the return of citrus season.
Neither the developer nor the grove’s owners spoke at the neighborhood meeting.
More hurdles ahead for the developer
The proposal to convert the grove into a golf course is still under review by county staff, which has yet to provide any comments, Yovanovich said at the neighborhood meeting.
Next steps include a presentation to the Collier County Planning Commission, which is anticipated to happen in early August — after county staff completes its review and comes up with its recommendations.
After hearing from all sides, including county staff, the development team and neighbors, the advisory-only planning commission will make its own recommendations to county commissioners.
County commissioners are expected to take up the petitions in late September.
Laura Layden is a senior business and government reporter. Reach her by email at laura.layden@naplesnews.com.Â
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