AWWA ACE95171

Collier County is located in southwest Florida. Much of Collier County consists of environmentally sensitive wetlands, cypress sloughs and mangrove forests, which prevent development (a portion of Everglades National Park extends into Collier County). As a result, the development that has occurred is located along the coastal ridge or in the northern sections of Collier County (the north being mostly agriculture), which tend to be higher, drier and less environmentally sensitive. Over the past ten years, the coastal ridge of Collier County has had unprecedented progress as one of the fastest growing areas of the country. With two regional utility systems serving the bulk of this development, the City of Naples and the Collier County Water-Sewer District, growth pressures have caused the utility system to expand from 20,000 to 80,000 customers since 1984. The result is a tremendous demand for new water sources, treatment capacity, and transmission pipelines for water and sewer service. In addition, the Florida Legislature in 1985, passed the Growth Management Act to ensure that adequate services existed for future residents. This paper describes the process Collier County went through to meet the Growth Management Act requirements for land use planning and water resources management and development. Their efforts included: fiscal planning (business principles, customer and usage forecast, development of total utility financial plan, design of utility rates for service, public information, and monitoring); infrastructure financing (public funds and private participation); and public relations and education. With similar issues arising in other parts of the country, the lessons learned from Collier County's experiences can be valuable in developing standardized procedures and documents.