Immokalee's planners and visionaries hope to set the wheels in motion May 22 toward a final up-or-down vote on the Immokalee Master Plan - and hope the vote will take place in June in Immokalee. 

Collier County commissioners will be formally asked next week - invited - to hold the June 26th county commission meeting in Immokalee and during that meeting formally and finally vote on the community's future as expressed in the Master Plan. 

A formal and regularly-scheduled county commission meeting in Immokalee would be historic. It has been decades - the late 1980s - since the Collier lawmakers held a formal commission meeting in Immokalee, although the Collier Metropolitan Planning Organization, a joint body of the Collier commission and Naples City Council, held a meeting here in April. The Collier County School Board holds an Immokalee meetings at least once each year. 

The Immokalee Community Redevelopment Agency's I(CRA) citizen advisory committee will formally ask, invite, the Collier lawmakers on Tuesday to make that trek on June 26 and at the meeting vote on the Master Plan. 

Nearly a decade in development, the Master Plan was voted down in December, 20ll when it failed to garner the four out of five votes needed to adopt it. Because the plan is a major alteration of the county's formal growth management plan its adoption requires the "super majority" of four votes to win approval. While three lawmakers supported the plan in December - Commissioners Jim Coletta, Fred Coyle and Donna Fiala - one commissioner - Georgia Hiller - voted against it and Commissioner Tom Henning abstained, saying he had a conflict of interest because he owned a piece of property in Immokalee. 

While the December vote might have killed the plan, the State of Florid agreed in January to grant an extension of the deadline for its adoption unti late September.

The Immokalee CRA is in the midst of holding a series of three public meetings about the plan for anyone who might still have questions or who may want to learn more. Click here to learn about those meetings. The remaining public meetings are set for: May 23 at the Immokalee Community Park, 321 North First Street, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. May 30 at Southwest Florida Works (also known as the One-Stop Shop), 750 South Fifth Street, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. 

The plan and much more information about it is available in English, Spanish and Creole at the special Master Plan page on this website. 

 Think of it as a master plan refresher.

That's how the Naples Daily News described Wednesday's first-of-three public meetings about the Immokalee Master Plan, quoting Penny Phillippi, executive director of the Immokalee Community Redevelopment Agency.  

"What we're trying to do is put forward a master plan that's been worked on for a period of time," Phillippi told the newspaper. "It is a blueprint for the future. Whatever is going to happen is not going to happen tomorrow, next week or next year but down the road this is what we want to see happen. It is not set in stone ... it is a living breathing document that can be changed as (Immokalee residents) see fit."

• May 23 at the Immokalee Community Park, 321 North First Street, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. 
• May 30 at Southwest Florida Works (also known as the One-Stop Shop), 750 South Fifth Street, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. 

 You may have noticed the video now gracing the top of our ImmokaleeToday page.

We hope you clicked on the video, watched its brief summation of the news and, maybe, shared it with friends via Facebook, Twitter or GooglePlus. 

It's a new feature, prepared by our friends, Relevanza, working in conjunction with the Wibbitz video design team. 

The amazing new Wibbitz technology draws posted pieces from our news sections and transforms them into a quick video recap. It's great for a hurried review of the news or you can click on each piece featured in the short video. 

Read more about the new feature and the new techonology on the Relevanza blog and on Relevanza's Tumblr blog. Reach out to Relevanza to find out more. 

 Marie Capita, manager of the Immokalee Business Development Center, of IMMBIZ, is headed for an international conference on business incubation in Atlanta, Georgia.  

 Immokalee's beautification and lighting district has a new project manager. 

Jeffrey Nagle will become chief of the Immokalee beautification muncipal services taxing unit (MSTU), next week, moving to the community from Sarasota. The property tax funded MSTUensures public thoroughfares are brigtened with street lights and landscaped with native plants. 

The taxing unit, formerly independent, was included in the portfolio of the Immokalee Community Redevelopment Agency earlier this year, although it will continue to have its own board of directors chaired by long-time Immokalee community activist and supporter, Cherryle Thomas. 

EDITOR'S NOTE: In an effort to make the information and news found on ImmokaleeToday.com available to as many people as possible from as diverse as world's population as we have,  we are delighted to add a "Google Translate" feature to our website. 

To translate the words on this page - on any of our pages - into 20 of the most frequently spoken languages, including and especially Spanish and Creole, simply click on the Google Translate button in the right sidebar of this page. 

This service is just part of our effort to celebrate the cultural diversity of Immokalee and demonstrate why, in this rapidly changing world, Immokalee really is Florida in the 21st Century. 

 With the Immokalee Area Master Plan expected to return to Collier County lawmakers some time in the summer, the community's leaders and visionaries will hold special, additional public meetings in May to discuss the plan and answer questions. 

The Immokalee Community Redevelopment Agency's (CRA) citizens advisory committee, who with the community at large have been drafting the plan's revisions for a decade want to make sure everyone has a chance to completely understand the plan and the blueprint it lays out for Immokalee's future. 

NOTE: Translation of this post into Spanish and Creole, indeed translation of our entire site, can be accomplished by clicking on the "Google Translation" button in the right sidebar of the page. 

The advisory committee, led by CRA Executive Director Penny Phillippi, has been holding a series of small gatherings with various groups around town for the past month. The series of May meetings will be the culmination of an effort to give all Immokaleans - and others - the most thorough review possible of the plan before it makes its way back to Collier County Commissioners. The Naples Daily News gave its editorial support for the public meetings. 

The master plan failed to win the four out of five votes necessary to win approval last December when one county lawmaker voted against it and another abstained from the vote. The plan needs four out of five votes to win final adoption. You can read the history of that vote here and here and here. 

The public meetings set for May will include: 

• May 9 at Hodges University (Jubilation), 1170 Harvest Drive, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. 
• May 23 at the Immokalee Community Park, 321 North First Street, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. 
• May 30 at Southwest Florida Works (also known as the One-Stop Shop), 750 South Fifth Street, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. 

Anyone can attend any or all of these meetings. Any and all questions will be welcomed and the answers will be complete and informative. Translations will be available for Spanish and Creole speakers. All information about the Immokalee Area Master Plan is available on our special Master Plan page on this website. 

 Some time between now and August, Collier County commissioners will once again take up the proposed formal adoption of the revised Immokalee Master Plan. 

In an effort to make sure everyone has equal and accessible opportunity to read and understand the vision for the future of Immokalee as expressed in the Master Plan, the Immokalee Community Redevelopment Agency has copies of the plan in Spanish and Creole. 

"It is vitally important that everyone in Immokalee - and, indeed, everyone in Collier County - has the fullest opportunity possible to understand the Master Plan and the decade of work that has gone into the vision as expressed in the plan," said Penny Phillippi, executive director of the Immokalee CRA. 

"It is a point of pride for the community of Immokalee how we, as a community, came together to express a vision for our future and how we stand united to work over the coming years to see that future become reality." 

The current version of the updated Immokalee Area Master Plan can be found on this site's Master Plan page in English, Spanish and Creole. 

A complete Question-and-Answer feature is also available on the Master Plan page or by clicking here. Current and proposed land use maps are also available. 

Printed copies are also available at the Immokalee CRA office, 1320 North 15th Street (S.R. 29, north of Lake Trafford Road.) 

 "Balloons Over Paradise" was a great event over the weekend of April 14th & 15th, spectacular flights of fancy! 

 Click here to see a huge gallery of photos by the Naples Daily News.

Sponsored by the Seminole Immokalee Casino in conjunction with Immokalee Harvest Fest, an event of the Immokalee Chamber of Commerce, the celebration of magical, colorful flight featured more than 30 custom hot air balloons, tethered balloon rides, live music by award-winning performers, culinary treats, children’s activities, art and much more.