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Town touts affordable homes
Ave Maria will offer hundreds of units in Collier

By Joan D. Laguardia

About 350 of 1,900 promised affordable housing units will be among the first dwellings built in Ave Maria, a town being developed in Collier County along with Ave Maria University.

Rental units will be based on income. The most affordable homes for purchase will begin around $170,000, said Blake Gable, spokesman for the partnership developing the campus and the town.

About 400 people, including Gov. Jeb Bush, gathered under tents at the site Friday to officially kick off construction of the new Roman Catholic university founded by billionaire philanthropist Thomas Monaghan.

The university, which will open in the fall of 2007, will be built on 1,000 acres about five miles south of Immokalee in east Collier County. That land was donated by Naples-based Barron Collier Companies.

The town will be on 4,000 acres of Barron Collier land next to the university. Homes may open as early as late spring 2007.

Monaghan, the founder of Domino's Pizza and former owner of the Detroit Tigers, is chancellor of the university, which is run by lay Catholics. Through his Ave Maria Foundation, he has pledged to meet the $250 million in construction costs.

"This initial donation will provide a substantial start to Ave Maria University, but to achieve our vision for greatness, we will need continued financial support from others,” Monaghan said.

That vision is to build a university that trains Catholic teachers, journalists and students who will go on to become lawyers and priests.

It also includes building a town where anyone who works at the university, from a janitor to a professor, can afford to live.

The university and Barron Collier formed Ave Maria Development, a partnership, to develop the campus and the town.

Eventually, the town will include 11,000 dwellings, 1,900 of which will be for people with very low, low and moderate incomes, Gable said.

In addition to the affordable houses in the town, the partnership will work with Habitat for Humanity to build nearby homes.

Ave Maria development also will build 70 condominiums on the upper floors of five of the six buildings anchoring the town center. The ground floors will offer 330,000 square feet of commercial space.
Pulte Homes, a national home builder, will develop three other neighborhoods.

Developers said dwellings will be available at less than $491,000, the median home price in Collier County.

Monaghan and Lamar Gable, Barron Collier chairman, hosted the ceremony Friday.

Bush was visiting the Immokalee area for the first time since touring the damage from Hurricane Wilma in October 2005. He was pleased to see the area recovering from hurricane damage.

“I’m really proud of Southwest Florida and Collier County in how organized you are,” he said.

The governor praised the university’s goal of combining academic accomplishment with reinforcing “timeless values” like humility, compassion and respect for life.

Monaghan, whose wealth comes primarily from the $85 million sale of the Detroit Tigers in 1992 and the $1 billion sale of Domino’s Pizza in 1998, announced plans for the university in November 2002.

“Little did I know when I opened the first Domino’s store to pay my way through architectural school, it would eventually lead to the building of a Catholic university some 45 years later,” he said.

ACLU opposes creation of 'Catholic town'
Dominoes founder want to build new town with 'Catholic values'

If you could build a town from scratch, what would it look like?  Tom Monaghan, the founder of Domino‘s Pizza, wants a towering Roman Catholic Church at the center of his proposed new town.  He also prefers people who have the same religious beliefs as he does.  He wants them to move into his aptly named Ave Maria, Florida.

There‘s one group standing in the way of Monaghan‘s lifelong dream, the American Civil Liberties Union, of course.  Howard Simon is the executive director of Florida‘s ACLU.  He joined Tucker Carlson from Miami.

TUCKER CARLSON, HOST, 'THE SITUATION:  Now why is it your business what kind of town Tom Monaghan builds?  I mean, you may or may not be Catholic.  I‘m not Catholic, but I think Tom Monaghan should have the right to build any kind of town he wants that conforms to any kind of beliefs he has.  It‘s—I don‘t understand why it‘s your business?

HOWARD SIMON, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, FLORIDA ACLU:  I completely agree.  If he wants to build a town and encourage like minded people to come and live there, that‘s fine.  We get into problems where he tries to exercise governmental authority.  That‘s the issue.

It‘s not—Tucker, you‘ve to make a distinction between just encouraging like minded people to come and live in the same place with a town organized on religious principles, in which the religious group is given governmental authority.  It‘s that latter that is the problem.  And I must say, just...

CARLSON:  If that bothers you, I suggest you take a trip to rural Utah, where it‘s the rule, rather than the exception.  But I don‘t understand where you get the idea he‘s trying to exercise governmental authority.  My understanding is you‘re upset because he wants to bring in a pharmacy that does not sell contraception.  Why do you care?

SIMON:  Well, that‘s he‘s saying now, after having gotten some legal advice.  About a year ago he made a speech saying that “I own all the commercial real estate.  You‘re not going to be able to buy a ‘playboy.‘  We‘re going to control the kind of cable TV that comes in.  You‘re going to be able to get contraception, the pills, condoms at your local pharmacy.  You will not be able to purchase any of those services in this town.

CARLSON:  Howard, I hate to blow your mind, but that‘s called zoning, and it‘s everywhere.  Every town determines what cable system it has.  Every town.  Your town, my town.  The town decides what cable system you have.

Moreover, the town decides whether you can sell pornography in the stores or not.  There are rules in every town about not.  Moreover, they have zoning about what kind of stores you can have.  It‘s everywhere.  You just don‘t like this, because this is a serious Catholic guy.  I mean, that‘s the truth, isn‘t it?

SIMON:  Tucker, before you jump to the quick and not very well informed conclusion that that is just anti-Catholicism, I want to tell you that it was about 10 years ago when the United States Supreme Court correctly ruled that a group of Hasidic Jews in upper New York state, in a town called Kiryas Joel, could not receive government funding because that town was organized around pervasively sectarian religious principles.  And when you‘re required to conform to religious principles, that town is not fitting for governmental authority.

This is not Catholicism—this is not a story about Catholicism.  It‘s a story about any religious group trying to exercise governmental power.

CARLSON:  Well, wait a second.  First of all, I believe all those towns in upstate New York receive a ton of federal aid to this day.  So I‘m not exactly sure.

SIMON:  We‘re talking about—wait a minute.  There was this one town that went to the U.S. Supreme Court.

CARLSON:  Hold on.  I‘m absolutely familiar with the case, but that‘s not what we‘re talking about.  We‘re talking about the proposed town in Florida.  And the man who is developing the town prefers a pharmacy that does not sell contraception.  Isn‘t that his right?  It‘s his hand, and if he wants a pharmacy that doesn‘t sell condoms or the pill, it‘s not your business.  It‘s not my business.  I don‘t have a problem with contraception, but he does.  Why can‘t he sell the land to the pharmacy he prefers?

New Catholic town may keep birth control out

The founder of Domino's Pizza is starting a Florida town where he will build a Catholic university -- and possibly keep out contraception.

Tom Monaghan, who sold Domino's years ago, is using his fortune to help construct Ave Maria, a town and school near Naples, Fla.

"I believe all of history is just one big battle between good and evil," he was quoted as saying this week by Newsweek. "I don't want to be on the sidelines."

Monaghan, a conservative Catholic, controls the commercial real estate in Ave Maria along with a developer, the magazine said.

He wants drugstores to keep birth control off their shelves, and the developer said it would favor pharmacies with such a policy, according to Newsweek. A clinic opening already has said it would refuse contraception to students.

His attempt to restrict contraceptives may clash with the American Civil Liberties Union.

"It is completely naive to think this first attempt will be their last," the ACLU's Howard Simon told Newsweek. He argues that the Supreme Court has ruled that owning a city doesn't always equal "absolute dominion."

The ACLU may not get much support from Ave Maria's residents. According to Newsweek, the town probably will draw church-centered families, and there have been 7,000 home-buying inquiries.

Monaghan backtracks on Catholic-based restrictions for new town
By BRIAN SKOLOFF
Associated Press Writer

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Domino's Pizza founder Thomas S. Monaghan, who is helping to bankroll the birth of a southwest Florida town and university, backtracked Friday from comments that he'd like the community to be governed by strict Roman Catholic principles.

His ideas about barring pornography and birth control, he said, apply only to the Catholic university.

"There are a lot of misconceptions," Monaghan said Friday.

Both the town of Ave Maria and its Ave Maria University, the first Catholic university to be built in the United States in four decades, are set to open next year about 25 miles east of Naples.

Monaghan's comments Friday contrasted with statements he made last year to a Catholic men's group in Boston that pornographic magazines won't be sold in town, pharmacies won't carry condoms or birth control pills, and cable television will carry no X-rated channels.

"I would say I just misspoke," Monaghan said Friday in an interview with The Associated Press. "The town will be open to anybody."

Monaghan had declined to comment earlier in the week, while his attorneys were reviewing legal issues surrounding his original ideas.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida had promised lawsuits if the proposals were instituted. Florida Attorney General Charlie Crist said he saw nothing in Monaghan's proposals that violated state law.

The town is being developed through a 50-50 partnership with the Barron Collier Co., an agricultural and real estate firm. Barron Collier and Monaghan will control all commercial real estate.

The town will not allow adult bookstores or topless clubs.

However, it will merely suggest, not prohibit, businesses from selling adult magazines or contraceptives.

"We are not going to censor any of that information, but in deference to Ave Maria University, we are going to request that they not sell that merchandise but we are not restricting," said Barron Collier CEO Paul Marinelli.

Contraceptives will not be distributed on campus.

"We are trying to create a town with traditional family values and a wholesome environment and that's why we are saying we will not allow adult bookstores, massage parlors or topless bars," Marinelli said. "The misconception we're trying to clarify is that this is not going to be a strictly Catholic town ... I think it would be boring if in fact it was all Catholic."

Marinelli said the town would welcome "synagogues as well as Baptist churches."

"We're not going to discriminate against anyone, whether it be religion, race, ethnicity or sexual orientation," said Barron Collier executive Blake Gable, adding that homosexuals will be welcome despite the church's belief that homosexuality is a sin.

Also contrary to Monaghan's earlier statements, the town will not restrict cable television programming.

Marinelli said the town, expected to attract 25,000 residents, will offer affordable and extravagant housing, including seven different communities for groups from seniors to young families.

"We're just trying to create an environment where children will be safe on the streets, where they can ride their bikes and play ball in the park," he said. "We're truly just trying to create a town with traditional values."

Ave Maria University President Nicholas Healy Jr. said even the school will represent different viewpoints.

"We have on our faculty a Jewish rabbi and a faculty member from the Greek Orthodox church," Healy said. "All we ask is that they support the mission of the school."

Monaghan said the university, which graduated it first class last year on an interim campus in Naples, has students from 42 states and 13 countries.

The community will be set on 5,000 acres with a European-inspired town center. It will encircle a massive church and what planners call the largest crucifix in the nation, standing nearly 65 feet tall. Monaghan has already pledged more than $250 million to the project. All the proceeds Monaghan generates from his 50 percent ownership of the town will be used to fund university projects.