The Naples Daily News has finished a three part series about how developers of Ave Maria, Tom Monaghan and Barron Collier Cos., managed to get a new law passed in Tallahassee that allowed the development company to deny the residents of Ave Maria the right to vote on any city issues as long as half of the property wasn't developed. Given that the full buildout of Ave Maria was supposed to be less than half of all of the land in the development, the citizens of the city would be completely unable to stop the developers from doing whatever they want and sticking the residents with the bill.
Of course, the developers sputtered and whined that they don't want to control the city, they want to get done and move on. Maybe, I might even believe Barron Collier Cos.' flack, but I'm not sure what Mr. Monaghan wants. As long as the developers have control, and particularly if Barron Collier Cos. is bought out, Mr. Monaghan or his new university could end up with absolute control of the town, and, as things stand right now, the poor folks who bought this because they thought they were going to be in a nice conservative Roman Catholic town might get stuck with a lot of bills they have no way of stopping.
[ht: Rod Dreher who caught the Naples Daily News articles because even Carl Hiaasen never imagined a developer quite this underhanded]