🏗️🌴 Rivergrass Rises: Lennar Discovers Dirt in Big Cypress

(Florida’s newest luxury suburb bravely marches toward the wilderness… with bulldozers.)

At long last, civilization has arrived in eastern Collier County — not by canoe, not by panther pawprint, but by the soothing rumble of heavy machinery and the gentle perfume of freshly disturbed wetlands. 😌🚜

Yes, Lennar has officially broken ground in Rivergrass Village, the first major sign that the Town of Big Cypress is no longer just a concept whispered in planning meetings and courtrooms — it’s becoming gloriously, concretely real.

🏘️ Welcome to Rivergrass: Where Nature Meets Neighborhood Branding™

Workers are already hard at work doing what humans do best:

• digging ponds that look suspiciously like drainage systems 🕳️💧

• laying water and sewer pipes (because luxury demands plumbing) 🚰

• carving out streets where panthers once quietly judged us 🛣️🐾

All of this is happening on a 545-acre plot off Oil Well Road, where Lennar plans to build more than 1,000 residencesin a neighborhood also called… Rivergrass.

Because nothing says creativity like naming everything the same thing. 🌱✨

🏙️ Big Cypress: A Town, A Vision, A Lawsuit Magnet

Rivergrass is just the opening act.

Collier Enterprises promises the Town of Big Cypress will eventually include:

• three villages: Rivergrass, Longwater, and Bellmar 🏘️🏘️🏘️

• 8,300 homes

• 11,000 residents

• 1.6 million square feet of shops, offices, and places to buy candles labeled “Everglades Mist” 🕯️🛍️

It’s basically a master-planned paradise… assuming the permits survive.

🐆 Meanwhile, the Panthers Are… Concerned

Environmental groups, in a shocking twist of predictability, are worried about the villages’ proximity to the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge.

Their concern?

That more subdivisions bring:

• more roads

• more cars

• more vehicle collisions

And tragically, being hit by vehicles is the most common way panthers are killed every year. 🚗💥🐆

But don’t worry — developers have responded with the classic Florida solution:

“We’re preserving land!” 🌳👏

Collier Enterprises proudly touts it’s protecting over 12,000 acres of surrounding wildlands, giving panthers plenty of room to roam freely… around the edges of an 8,300-home mega-development.

It’s like building a mall in the middle of a library and saying, “But we saved the poetry section.” 📚🏗️

⚖️ Conservation Meets Construction (In Court)

Naturally, Big Cypress has faced multiple lawsuits — because in Florida, nothing is truly official until it’s been litigated.

• The Conservancy of Southwest Florida sued over Rivergrass approval

• A settlement in July 2023 preserved hundreds of acres of habitat and reduced development land

• Rivergrass construction was cleared, but other villages remain… complicated 😬

Then in February 2024, a federal judge ruled the EPA violated the Endangered Species Act by allowing Florida to issue wetlands permits instead of the Army Corps.

Bellmar, sitting about a mile from the refuge, was specifically cited as an example of panther-danger development.

The case is on appeal, and the legal fog continues to roll in like a summer thunderstorm. ⛈️📜

And just last month, the South Florida Wildlands Association filed a required 60-day notice of intent to sue.

Because the bulldozers may be strong, but the paperwork is stronger. 💪📄

🌎 Florida’s Great Tug-of-War: Homes vs. Habitat

Last week, Rivergrass and the Picayune Strand became symbolic bookends of Florida’s eternal struggle:

On one side:

Bulldozers clearing land for thousands of homes 🏘️🚜

On the other:

Environmentalists celebrating the reclamation of 85 square miles of Everglades wilderness 🌿🎉

At Picayune Strand, roads were ripped out, canals were filled in, and wildlands were restored for:

• panthers

• black bears

• native plants

• everything that prefers not to live next to a Publix 🐻🌱

🏁 Final Thoughts: Progress, With a Side of Panther Politics

So here we are:

Rivergrass is rising.
Concrete is coming.
Panthers are watching.
Lawyers are circling.

And Florida, as always, is trying to do two things at once:

🏗️ Build housing for a booming population
🐆 Preserve the last wild corners of the Everglades

It’s the great Collier County paradox:

“Come live in nature… just as soon as we finish paving it.” 🌴🛣️