Ave Maria University and Town are the first implementation of the Rural Lands Stewardship Program, designed to plan for the future of 200,000 acres of undeveloped land in Eastern Collier County while protecting the environment, agriculture, and economic vitality. When fully implemented in the entire Rural Lands area, the plan will produce results as listed below.

Protecting the Environment

• Incentivizes landowners to protect environmentally valuable land
• Places nearly 90,000 acres (47% of privately-held lands within the Study Area) into Stewardship designation
• Protects 90% of uplands and wetlands
• Incorporates 91% of panther telemetry points
• Requires less than 20% of the development footprint
• Enforces environmental protection standards in Stewardship areas
• Incentivizes restoration of land
• Works with or without public funds

Protecting Agriculture

• Protects 75,000 acres, or over 80% of all agricultural resources
• Maintains inherent value of land (loan value)
• Protects private property rights through incentive-based program
• Provides for use of local, State, Federal and private revenues for land acquisition
• Forms Agricultural Advisory Committee for Collier County

Protecting Economic Vitality

• Accommodates 2025 population projection in compact form of development
• Protects an average of 5-7 acres of Stewardship areas for each acre of rural development
• Utilizes innovative planning techniques, such as rural, commercial villages, i.e. Smart Growth
• Promotes substantial, long-term positive effects on employment
• Allows growth in manner that results in positive net fiscal impact for Collier County