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It’s been slated for landfill expansion, a county barn, ATV trails, and a 36-hole public golf course; now the 340-acre site north of the Naples Landfill has a new mission – solid waste park.

The site, located 1.5 miles east of Collier Boulevard and one mile north of White Lake Boulevard in Section 25, generated significant public outcry in 1993, when property owners learned the county was buying up the property for landfill expansion. Concerned about increased smell, poor landfill operations and lowered property values, residents convinced county commissioners to put the expansion on hold.

This week, Collier Solid Waste officials presented a plan for a solid waste park on the site. If approved, work could break ground as early as October 2009. Solid Waste Director Dan Rodriquez says the plan has been in the works for at least three years and this time around, he does not anticipate significant opposition.

“We now have a solid waste strategy that won’t allow the mistakes of the past,” Rodriquez says. “There have been some very good lessons learned. We won’t be going backward.”

According to Rodriquez, the land is already approved for a solid waste park in the county’s land development code. The only remaining issue is approval of the uses.

Under the current design, more intense uses, such as household hazardous waste, white goods, tire and construction/demolition processing and materials recycling facility, are located on the southern portion of the property, bordering the White Lake Industrial Park property. Many of the proposed uses are already being conducted at the current landfill site, but the area that currently houses those services is slated for future landfill cell development.

The county currently sends its recycling to a MRF owned by Waste Management, on the East Coast of Florida. Rodriquez says as the cost of fuel and transportation increases, it may be advantageous for the county to handle its own recycling and sell the resulting raw resources to various markets.

Arguably the most contentious use proposed for the park is bio-solids processing, which includes grease and oil from restaurants and sludge from waste water treatment plants. The county is currently sending these items out of county to a plant in Okeechobee.

According to Rodriquez, the process dries out bio-solids, treats them and turns them into fertilizer. He said the county has no plan for a bio-solids facility at this time, but all possible future uses must be included in the conditional use request. He said if constructed, the facility would be completely enclosed.

The proposed solid waste park would be a public/private venture. The county might build the facility and contract the services or independent companies could build and operate the various solid waste services.

“It will be a mix, depending on what’s the best value for the taxpayers,” Rodriquez said.

The northern portion of the site, just across the street from Hideaway Golf Course, includes 170 acres designated to remain undeveloped green space.

Despite the green space, Hideout owner Moe Kent is not happy with the prospect of having a solid waste park as a neighbor.

“I don’t think a dump makes a very good neighbor,” he says, adding, “The county has already taken a lot from the property owners in Sections 24 and 25. Through the Sending and Receiving program, they have determined the use of our land without compensation for resource. I’ll be anxious to hear what they have to say about this project.”

The solid waste park proposal has several ‘holes in the doughnut’ created by property owners who have refused to sell their undeveloped properties to the county. Two 10-acre parcels touch the edges of the project, posing no access issues, according to Rodriquez. The third, a 2½-acre parcel nestled inside the yard waste and storm debris processing portion of the project, would require the county to take the parcel by eminent domain or provide access, if they are not able to purchase it.

Owner Russell Holloway says he has been wrangling with the county for 20 years. Holloway purchased the property in 1971, before the landfill was relocated to its current site from its former location, now the Naples Airport.

“You should see what I’ve received over the years,” he says. “I have a file 1½-inches thick of correspondence with the county.”

Rodriquez says the county has offered Holloway a good deal for his property. Holloway says he’s willing to consider a fair price, but the county has so far failed to present one.

“We’re willing to keep our options open,” Rodriquez says of ongoing negotiations. “We want to be a good neighbor.”

To that end, Rodriquez said it is his department’s goal to address solid waste in the cleanest, most economical way, using the latest in current and future technology. The solid waste park would include administrative offices, where officials hope to offer educational classes and tours on solid waste disposal from start to finish and promote recycling efforts at the residential and commercial level.

Rodriquez says today’s landfills will eventually go the way of the dinosaur.

“Our needs will be greater and we will have more solid waste. Technology will advance and we will need to catch up,” he says. “We will need to process our waste stream rather than bury it.”