Tuesday, February 22, 2000
By CHARLIE WHITEHEAD, Staff Writer - Naples Daily News
Construction traffic to Pelican Landing and the under-construction Hyatt Regency Coconut Point has left Coconut
Road in need of resurfacing, and it's they who will pay for it - at least most of it.
The saga of what was not too long ago a little-used rural road will continue when the 17-story, 450-room hotel
nears opening. Nearby residents, many the descendants of Draine and Mamie Weeks living in the small bayfront community
the pioneers founded more than 50 years ago, initially opposed the hotel construction. WCI and the county agreed
to jointly improve the road, a $47,000 job with the cost split evenly between the two parties.
A portion of the road, between Spring Creek Road and the new hotel, will need to be rebuilt again. This time Hyatt
and the county will split the cost, with Hyatt picking up 80 percent of the $120,000 cost.
"As much as is going on back there, we kind of said 'Yeah, it's us' and agreed," said WCI Vice President
Ed Griffith."It makes good business sense." County engineer Comer Taylor agreed.
"From Spring Creek down was just built," Taylor said. "The piece between Spring Creek and the Hyatt
we'll have to tear out and rebuild it wider." David Dilley, a Pelican Landing resident and community association
board member, said that as a taxpayer he'd have liked to have seen the job done only once.
"I think it would make more sense for the repairs to be done after all the heavy construction was done on
the hotel," he said.
Though Dilley and some other community residents continue to insist Hyatt guests will have no right to use what
they say is a residents private beach park, he said he feels the hotel itself will be a great asset to the community.
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