An article piece written by Ray Christman
Appeared in the Naples Daily News | January 17, 2022
The February 1, 2022 Naples City Council election is a pivotal one for our city and its future. It represents a choice as to which road our residents wish to take.
Do we want to continue to pursue the priorities identified in 2019 when over 2,000 residents joined in developing a new Naples Vision, one based on preserving, protecting, and improving Naples unique character and identity? Or pursue some other strategy that would be based on different goals?
When I first ran for City Council three years ago, I did so because I believed our city leadership needed a direction correction. Council needed to listen more closely to our residents regarding priorities and concerns.
Based on that feedback and my own observations, I identified four priorities, each of which remains an element in my current platform:
1. Protect our environment with an emphasis on clean water and healthy beaches.
2. Strengthen and enforce our land development codes – manage height and density.
3. Sustain our excellent quality of life.
4. Provide transparent, ethical, and responsive local government, with special attention to public health and safety.
Three years later, we can point to important accomplishments. City Council has instituted a 42-foot height limit for new commercial development, removed the ability of developers to receive easy variances, adopted a strengthened stormwater management code for new development, provided greater beach parking access for residents, and enacted a new, best practices ethics code that toughens disclosure and conflict of interest rules.
Beyond this, we have moved forward the long-delayed Gulf Shore Boulevard Beach Outfalls clean water project, tackled cleaning and restoring four major lakes in the City (Fleischmann, East, Spring, and Swan Lakes), pushed for a conservation easement to truly protect in perpetuity the open space at the Naples Beach Hotel, moved forward the repair of seawalls and sidewalks in Venetian Village, and initiated a master planning process, with citizen input, to create a vision and development strategy for the 10th Street corridor.
All this has occurred during a time when growth pressures on Naples have never been greater. County population continues to grow at an accelerated level. Major new residential developments have been approved in eastern Collier County. Current levels of tourism and short-term visitation have never been higher. We see the consequences every day for our quality of life.
During my time on City Council, my positions and priorities have been clear and consistent. Residents can depend on me to do what I say.
I bring to this job relevant experience and credentials through a career working in senior positions in government and the private sector. This includes my work in my hometown of Pittsburgh helping lead its transformation to a new technology-based economy, and my leadership in 2014 here in Florida to pass a ballot measure resulting in hundreds of millions of new dollars for water and land conservation.
Perhaps the greatest lesson I have learned throughout my career is that success comes from working together. Business with government, government with civic organizations, neighborhoods together across the city. Public-private partnerships. We need leaders on City Council who want to build bridges, not blow them up.
I believe together we can move forward in this direction. We can achieve our goals. A clean natural environment is key to a successful economy for Naples. Protecting public health and safety leads to stable neighborhoods.
We need to build on the good work of the past several years. I look forward to the opportunity to continue to serve you, the residents.
Click here to read the article on the Naples Daily News site.