More Homes, Less Land: The Real Math Behind Marco Island’s Density

The Mackle brothers’ original vision does not prove Marco Island still has room to grow. With more housing concentrated on less developable land and increasing pressure from mainland growth, every future development proposal must be carefully evaluated to protect Marco's future.

MARCO NEWS

Teri Sommerfeld

9/10/20265 min read

It comes up repeatedly in discussions about growth: The Mackle brothers, Marco Island’s original developers, envisioned a much larger and denser community than the one they completed. Therefore, the argument goes, Marco Island must still have plenty of room to grow into their original vision.

That argument ignores what actually happened to the Mackles’ plan, how much of the land they intended to develop became permanently protected, and how many housing units were ultimately concentrated onto the smaller portion of the island that remained buildable. It also overlooks the enormous growth occurring beyond our city limits and the thousands of additional people who use Marco Island’s roads, beaches and public facilities.

Once all of those factors are considered, the Mackle plan does not prove that Marco Island has room for substantially more development. It raises a much more serious possibility: Marco Island may already be more intensely developed than the island and its infrastructure can comfortably sustain.

What the Mackles Actually Planned

Beginning in 1964, the Mackle brothers’ Deltona Corporation set out to transform Marco Island’s mangrove flats into a canal-front community. Their master plan ultimately included more than 12,000 homesites and approximately 425 acres set aside for resort hotels alone. That is roughly eight times the approximately 53 acres the current Comprehensive Plan designates for that use today.

The original vision included hotels along Marco Island’s crescent beach and at what is now Cape Marco. Local lore also holds that Deltona contemplated an especially ambitious resort at Cape Marco in anticipation that Florida might someday legalize casino gambling, potentially positioning the site for a future casino hotel.

That was the vision. It was not what was ultimately built, and the difference is essential to understanding Marco Island’s density today.

Why That Vision Was Never Completed

Neither the land nor the development potential envisioned in the original plan remains available today. The Cape Marco property was ultimately developed with the condominium towers that now occupy the site. Other land once contemplated for hotel development was permanently converted to residential use. It is not dormant hotel capacity waiting to be unlocked.

Even more significantly, in 1976 the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers denied Deltona’s dredge-and-fill permits for the final phases of its project in Barfield Bay and Big Key on environmental grounds. Deltona challenged that decision through the courts for six years. In 1982, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear its final appeal.

The dredging stopped permanently. Thousands of acres that Deltona expected to turn into canals, homesites and development areas instead remained mangrove wetlands and ultimately became protected conservation land. That same conservation acreage is reflected in Marco Island’s Comprehensive Plan today.

In other words, much of the “unused density” sometimes attributed to the Mackles’ plan is not unused at all. It was tied to land that the federal government determined could not be developed. That land was removed from the island’s buildable inventory more than 45 years ago, and it is not coming back for development in the future.

More Housing on Less Land

There is an important irony in the numbers. Although Marco Island ended up with substantially less developable land than the Mackles originally anticipated, the island today contains roughly 18,700 housing units, compared with the more than 12,000 homesites included in Deltona’s original plan.

Marco Island is therefore not underbuilt in relation to its founders’ vision. It has already exceeded that vision in total housing units, while concentrating those units onto a much smaller developable footprint.

That is one reason the island feels as dense as it does today. The Mackles imagined development spread across thousands of additional acres that were never permitted to be dredged and filled. Today’s homes, condominiums, hotels and commercial properties are concentrated within the land that remained available.

The missing land does not represent future growth capacity. It helps explain why the development already here places so much pressure on a small and environmentally sensitive island.

Growth Does Not Stop at Our City Limits

Marco Island’s effective density is not determined solely by the number of homes, hotel rooms or people within the city limits. It is also affected by the thousands of people who travel here from the mainland to use our roads, beaches, waterways, restaurants and public facilities.

Collier Boulevard, or State Road 951, is the primary connection between Marco Island, Interstate 75 and the rest of Collier County. As development continues along that corridor, more residents, workers and visitors are funneled toward the island. Much of that traffic eventually crosses the Judge S.S. Jolley Bridge and enters a street system designed for a considerably smaller community.

Visitors are also arriving at an island with a finite beach and very limited public access. Marco Island has only a handful of public beach access points. The South Marco Beach public parking lot, for example, has very limited capacity. Another public access point near the Hilton and Marriott’s Crystal Shores has no dedicated parking at all. Visitors must walk, bike or be dropped off.

This matters directly when the City considers additional hotel development. Every new beachfront hotel room brings more guests with direct access to the same finite stretch of sand. At the same time, Marco Island must absorb increasing traffic and visitation generated by mainland growth over which the City has little or no control.

Density decisions made at City Hall do not occur in isolation from what is happening along State Road 951. The effects accumulate. Additional development on Marco Island and continuing development on the mainland place more people and vehicles on the same roads and increase demand for the same beaches, waterways, utilities, emergency services and public resources.

A Finite Island Requires Greater Caution

The Mackle brothers’ original vision cannot be used to justify more development today. Their plan depended on thousands of acres that were never developed and are now protected. Land intended for hotels was converted to residential use, and the island ultimately accommodated far more housing units than the Mackles originally planned, all within a much smaller buildable area.

Meanwhile, growth beyond Marco Island continues to send more traffic and visitors across our bridges and onto our streets and beaches. The island must serve not only its residents, seasonal population and hotel guests, but also increasing numbers of people arriving from rapidly developing areas of mainland Collier County.

When these realities are considered together, Marco Island may already be overdeveloped relative to its limited land, infrastructure and natural resources. At a minimum, we should stop assuming that every remaining parcel can absorb greater height, density or intensity simply because a very different plan once existed on paper.

Every future development and redevelopment proposal must be evaluated carefully and cumulatively. City leaders must ask not only whether a project can technically fit on a particular property, but also what it will add to traffic, beach crowding, water demand, wastewater treatment, emergency services and pressure on our natural environment.

Marco Island’s appeal as both a residential community and a tourist destination depends on the same things: clean water, uncrowded beaches, manageable traffic, reliable infrastructure and the peaceful island character people come here to enjoy. If we continue adding development without honestly confronting the island’s limits, residents’ quality of life will suffer, and Marco Island will become less desirable as a place to visit as well as a place to call home.

Thank you for caring for Marco,

Teri Sommerfeld
Candidate for Marco Island City Council

Learn more about Teri, her background, and her vision for a brighter future for all who call Marco Island home.

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