A controversial golf course community in northern Collier County won unanimous approval from the South Florida Water Management District’s governing board yesterday. It’s the second time the governing board has approved the proposed 17-hundred-acre development, called Mirasol. The U-S Army Corps of Engineers denied a federal permit for a nearly identical version of the project last year. That version was also first approved by the South Florida Water Management District. Environmental groups and others oppose the project because it would destroy about 650-acres of wetlands, including endangered wood stork habitat.
Conservancy of Southwest Florida President - Andrew McElwaine – attended the meeting. He says the board approved the project in spite of public outcry against it.

“What one governing board member said was ‘all these emails and letters I got all said this is a bad development, you know we don’t need another golf course in Collier County’ – and he said it’s not up to the water management district to decide whether to approve a golf course or whether it’s a good or bad development. All we can do is apply our standards, and we’re not a zoning commission.”

McElwaine says the case will likely wind up in court…although there are still several key approvals to be won. The U-S Army Corps of Engineers must give its nod…as well as the Collier County Commission…before the project can move forward.