Q: I enjoy all your posts and follow all your social media. Just heard about the private beach club coming to Vanderbilt Beach. As a longtime owner and full-time resident of Vanderbilt Beach, can you shed some light on what’s going on? – Carrie Mascio Pippen, North Naples A: Rezoning and conditional use petitions for the proposed Paraiso Beach Club are on the Oct. 14 meeting agenda for the Collier County Commission. County staff recommends approval of the proposals, which unanimously were approved Aug. 21 by the county Planning Commission. The private beach club is proposed across two small residential lots totaling 1.3 acres on Gulf Shore Drive near its intersection with Bayview Avenue, immediately north of the La Playa Beach & Golf Resort in North Naples and just south of Vanderbilt Beach Access No. 4. One of the two lots has a two-story home built in 1957 and remodeled in 2021 with the addition of a swimming pool. It would be demolished to build the club. Until razed in early 2023, the other vacant lot next door had a single-family residence built in 1968, county property records show. As opposed to two large singlefamily homes that could be built on the parcels under existing zoning, the beach club proposal “actually creates better view corridors for the community,” said Rich Yovanovich, land use attorney with Naplesbased Coleman Yovanovich Koester law firm, who is representing the applicant — Paraiso Beach Club LLC, a company managed by general partner and executive officer David Tingley of North Naples. “We are in the urban residential subdistrict, which allows for what we’re requesting, which is to rezone the property from RSF-3 to RT, which is residential tourist; with very limited or only one use allowed in the RT zoning district that we’re requesting, which is the right to come and ask for a conditional use for a private beach club,” Yovanavich said. The proposal essentially extends the boundary of the RT zoning district north from La Playa to include the two parcels, he said. The petitioner also seeks conditional use for the private beach club on the property, which is a use permitted within the RT zoning district. Plans for the private club at 10025 Gulf Shore Drive show a swimming pool and dining options. Beach umbrellas, chairs and cabanas supplied by the club will be used only in the beach area in front of the club. Restaurant spaces, kitchens, bars and private dining rooms are planned on two floors. Both open and covered outdoor dining are planned on the club’s rooftop, architectural plans by Bowman Consulting show. “It looks like a large, single-family home, and it was designed specifically with that in mind,” said Bob Mulhere, senior vice president and Naples branch manager for Bowman. The project will not generate a lot of traffic because members would be transported to the club from various communities, which have yet to be designated. For instance, The Floridian Club, a similar but smaller private beach club on Vanderbilt Bea...