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Major changes along Golden Gate Parkway between Livingston Road and Santa Barbara Boulevard have led property owners along that stretch to seek a zoning change from residential to commercial use.

“We want out,” says resident Kelly Reasner, who lives on 62nd St. SW, directly across from the David Lawrence Center.

Reasner moved from Orlando to Golden Gate in 1994 for a temporary job and wound up staying. He bought his residence on 62nd St. SWin 1998.

“I stayed because I loved it here. Now I hate it, because of what’s happened to the area,” he says. “I’d like county commissioners to come out here and listen to the noise, the motorcycles, the dump trucks, the semis. It’s almost unbearable.”

Since he bought his home, Golden Gate Parkway has been expanded to six lanes and a new interchange constructed at I-75. Livingston Road has been extended, parts of Santa Barbara widened and other parts are slated for improvement. Reasner says the traffic generated by these changes have ruined the property values and the quality of life for himself and other nearby residents.

Fellow resident Ed Koert has joined Reasner in spearheading the campaign to rezone the Golden Gate Parkway corridor from Livingston to Santa Barbara. Koert, who lives on 64th St., SW, says he represents approximately 70 property owners in the area.

“We want to rezone, but we also want to do something that is conducive to making the area the premier entrance into Naples, Golden Gate and Golden Gate Estates,” he says. “All the property owners I represent want change. No one wants to buy or build a residence here. As a matter of fact, the property appraiser has reassessed properties on the Parkway at a lower valuation. This has hurt the county’s tax base”

Koert plans to petition the county commissioners to rezone the property to commercial. He wants any new developments to be aesthetically pleasing and to have the county place architectural restrictions on new commercial buildings.

“I want buffer zones for noise abatement and lighting, so the residents living in the ‘second tier,’ those properties located behind the first row of residences along Golden Gate Parkway, won’t be affected by commercial development,” he says of his vision, which includes a mixed-use group of developments that would include restaurants, shopping, grocery stores, medical and legal offices, community gathering places and an architecturally appropriate service station.

“The area has changed and changed drastically. It is becoming a blighted area,” Koert says. “Vacant lots are not being built on or cared for. We want to make changes and create an area people will be proud to live in.”

Koert says he has around 500 signatures from residents who support his plan, but has been meeting resistance from at least one county commissioner, Tom Henning.

“He has told us he doesn’t want people profiting from a change from residential to commercial,” Koert says.

Henning says he met with a group of residents including Koert, telling them it is premature to seek such a zoning change.

"I said to try in another 20 years," he says.

The concept of commercialization of the interchange has also met with resistance from community groups, including the Golden Gate Area Civic Association, which fought to keep the intersection green when the interchange was in the planning phase.

Some residents living in the areas behind the first row of homes along the Parkway are also opposed to a zoning change, according to Koert.

Koert’s plan would first require a land use amendment to the Golden Gate Master Plan, part of the Collier County Growth Management Plan. Such amendments must go before the Collier Planning Commission and be approved by Collier County Commissioners before being transmitted to the state department for approval in Tallahassee. If the land use change were approved, the petitioners would then need to come before commissioners for a zoning change.