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The thing about rural Collier County is that a large chunk, more than 91 square miles of it, was designed by con men.
It's a place where today's roads are the paved-over runways once used by high-pressure salesmen of the Gulf American Land Corp. to fly prospective buyers over their overpriced lots. A place where New Englanders, Midwesterners, Californians and suckers from all over were sold dreams of retiring to Florida, of canals that would reach the Gulf, of cashing in at the ground floor of a building boom.
This is Golden Gate Estates, where in the 1960s hastily dug canals drained the swamps, where miles of limestone roads were poured with no thought of bringing parks, shops, schools, water or sewers. Where those who did sign on the dotted line, who were in fact sold Florida swampland, came to define gullibility for a generation.
But out of that scam, in the decades after the land corporation went bankrupt, a sprawling neighborhood did eventually form, one that's now larger in area than the city limits of Boston.
County planners have reopened the master plan for the Estates area for the first time in 10 years. They are reviewing plans to see if the county should do more to spur everything from commercial growth to wetlands restoration in the nefariously designed neighborhood, or if existing plans should be mostly left alone.
The area is uniquely attractive to some. Almost an anti-Naples, where no homeowners associations are allowed and campers, boats and RVs are welcomed on front lawns. Homes in the Estates are more affordable than in most parts of the county. And since they are mostly built on 2.5- or 5-acre lots, they are private.
It's home to a mix of people, those who moved to the Estates to get away from everything, and those who moved there because it is what they could afford.
Many of those who moved there for affordability grow tired, not only of what could be a 40-minute commute to work, but a 40-minute drive to just about everything else, too.
The county's move to rethink planning for the Estates is part of the yearslong process of revising plans to accommodate a booming population east of Collier Boulevard. About 300,000 people are expected to move into the mostly undeveloped eastern region, nearly doubling the county's current population of 339,000 over the next two decades, according to county growth projections. With that surge will come more houses, roads, businesses, schools and everything else new communities need to thrive.
About half the lots in Golden Gate Estates are empty. Three of four commercial centers, designated areas within the neighborhood grid for small stores, restaurants and offices, are vacant.
While tweaks to the master plan may be done, especially to get use out of those commercial centers, Community Planning Manager Kris Van Lengen said he doesn't expect much more to change.
'There was a major review a little over 10 years ago and now you don't see a tremendous number of problems,' Van Lengen said. 'Because it's a pre-platted subdivision there's not much call for redesignating large areas. You might not need much in the Estates, itself, because there are areas of land nearby that could accomplish and bring the things that most people want.'
There are large swaths of undeveloped land south and east of the homes in the Estates where the county should focus any commercial and industrial growth, said Commissioner Tim Nance, who represents the area.
'If we plan this right we can have our cake and eat it too,' Nance said. 'We could see those areas around the Estates help out with economic development so people can work and stay in the area without having to rezone or 'densify' anything in the Estates.'
The county has two separate master plans for land south and east of the Estates. The first covers the vast fields surrounding Immokalee. That plan helped guide Ave Maria's creation. It also will govern the development known as Rural Lands West, planned for 10,000 homes east of Everglades Boulevard along Oil Well Road.
The other plan, which also is undergoing revision, focuses on the Rural Fringe. It's a development density bonus program that allows landowners to swap undeveloped land for more building rights. About nine square miles of the Rural Fringe border the southern homes in the Estates, Nance said.
If plans are updated to allow commercial and industrial development in that area, residential areas could remain as they are, he said.
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'That's where we need to put more of the uses that people in the Estates are hoping for,' Nance said. 'So you don't have to drive to the coast for everything.'
Jeff Close is building a new home in the Estates, where he has lived since 1985.
'I'm a good ol' boy, man, I can't live in a gated community,' Close said. 'I have two campers and I'm not going to pay put them in storage. I don't like somebody telling me how to do everything.'
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The Estates is peaceful, Close said.
'It's really the only place left to get out there,' he said. 'But at the same time, if they were talking about bringing in some type of amenities, I wouldn't mind., if it's something so we don't have to drive everywhere.'
The ideal type of development is something like Fayard Hardware, Close said.
The store opened in a plaza on Wilson and Golden Gate boulevards in 2008. The plaza also includes a dentist's office, restaurant, pet supply store and a small convenience store among a handful of other shops. Similar strips could be built in three other commercial centers planned for the neighborhoods on the corners of Collier Boulevard and Pine Ridge Road, Golden Gate and Everglades boulevards and Immokalee Road and Everglades Boulevard.
The expanding hardware store was opened to save frustrated Estates residents a two-hour round trip to Home Depot every time something broke, said co-owner Jerry Craft.
'I mainly started it because I'd get out of work at 5 p.m. and always have a well broken or have to work on the well,' Craft said. 'So by the time you get out of work and drive back into town and got back out here you would be outside until midnight swatting mosquitoes. What we used to do is if something broke, you'd put off until tomorrow if you could get by with it.'
Peter Gaddy, past president of the area's civic association, said the county might need to look at expanding the three undeveloped commercial centers to make it easier for some stores to open.
'Some question if those centers are ever going to be viable because of the amount of area it takes to accommodate transportation and stormwater management,' Gaddy said.
Longtime resident Annette Kniola said she wouldn't mind some limited development, but doesn't want to see the commercial centers expanded.
'If they make these any bigger it's just going to grow from there,' Kniola said. 'I'm hoping they keep this as rural as possible. It's going to be worth more someday for its peace and quiet, than anything else.'
The area has always had very few environmental policies and needs significant attention, said Nancy Payton, Southwest Florida field representative for the Florida Wildlife Federation.
The county should consider adopting a program similar to the plan in place for the Rural Fringe land, where owners can trade development rights in sensitive areas, such as the southeast corner of the Estates, to build greater density in areas that are already developed, Payton said.
'The county has yet to step up and assume a lot of responsibility for managing water in its rural areas,' Payton said. 'The wetland system needs to be protected. We need to move density out of the southeastern portion of the Estates, and that means the county may have to acquire what it can from private landowners, or provide incentives to exchange parcels for density.'
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If you go
WHO: Collier County and Golden Gate Estates Area Civic Association
WHAT: Golden Gate Area Master Plan review meeting
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WHEN: 7 p.m., Wednesday, April 20
WHERE: Fire Station No. 71, 100 13th Street S.W.