The Marco We Envisioned: Let's Fulfill it Together
Marco Island residents already created a shared vision for a beautiful residential community with small-town charm, healthy waterways and a strong sense of belonging. This article explores how thoughtful decisions, responsible government and community collaboration can move us closer to that vision.
Rick Woodworth
9/15/20264 min read
Marco Island already has a vision. We wrote it together in 2019, through the Strategic Plan process that asked residents what kind of island they wanted to live in, and residents answered clearly. We said we wanted a great residential community. We said we wanted small town charm. We said we wanted beauty, a world class beach and natural environment, healthy waterways, convenient coastal living, and pride in our community.
That vision was not handed down from City Hall. It came from us. And it still describes the island most of us want, whether we have lived here for forty years or four.
Lately, some of our public conversations have felt more like arguments than planning. Development proposals, budget decisions, and committee disputes have pulled neighbors into opposing camps. That is understandable. These are decisions with real consequences. But underneath the disagreements, I believe most of us are still working from the same shared vision. We just have not spent enough time talking about how to get there together.
What would it take for us to talk about these decisions as neighbors working from the same vision, rather than as opponents?
What the Vision Already Tells Us
Small town charm and pride in community mean protecting the scale and character that make Marco feel different from the mainland, even as we welcome visitors and new neighbors.
A world class beach and natural environment and healthy waterways mean water quality is not a side issue. It is central to why people choose to live here, and it deserves real investment and real accountability.
Convenient coastal living means an island that still works, for the residents who live here year round and for the families who return every season: roads that move, services that respond, and a shoreline that stays healthy enough to enjoy.
None of this is new or controversial. It is what we already told each other we wanted. The question in front of us is not what kind of island we want. It is whether our decisions, year after year, actually move us toward it.
Looking at the last few years of decisions on this island, which ones moved us closer to the vision we set for ourselves, and which ones pulled us away from it?
The Community Behind the Vision
A vision statement is only as strong as the community living underneath it. Marco's character was never just the beach or the water. It is the clubs, civic groups, and volunteer organizations that give people a reason to know their neighbors. It is the pickleball courts and the paddling groups and the garden club, the small gatherings that turn a place people live into a place people belong.
It is also a community for more than one season of life. Families raising kids here need good schools, safe streets, and things for young people to do. Retirees who have chosen Marco for their next chapter need an island that stays livable, walkable, and connected as they age. A healthy Marco holds room for both, rather than treating one group's needs as an inconvenience to the other.
And it is the small, locally owned businesses that give the island its everyday character: the coffee shop where people know your order, the hardware store, the family run restaurant. Every time we make it harder for a small business to survive here, we trade away a little more of the small town charm we say we want to protect.
What does it look like to build a Marco that works for the families raising kids here, the retirees settling in, and the small businesses serving both?
The Kind of Government That Earns Trust
Vision and community only go so far without a government that residents can trust to carry them out. That means a City government that is run efficiently, that treats tax dollars and utility rate dollars as the residents' money rather than its own, and that can explain plainly where that money goes.
It means respecting the rights of residents, whether that is due process in a zoning dispute, transparency in how a contract was awarded, or simply a straight answer to a direct question. Trust is built one honest exchange at a time, and it is lost the same way.
And it means fairness in who pays for what. When infrastructure investments mainly benefit a particular group, whether that is a neighborhood, a marina, or a class of property owners, the cost of that investment should be shared fairly by those who benefit, not spread quietly across everyone else.
What would it take for every resident, regardless of which side of an issue they are on, to feel like their City government is being straight with them?
Getting There Together
None of this requires us to agree on every vote or every proposal. It requires us to remember that we already agree on the destination. The 2019 Strategic Plan was not written by a candidate or a councilor. It was written by residents, for this island, and it still holds up.
I would rather spend this campaign talking about how we get back to that shared vision than about who is to blame for drifting from it. If you have thoughts on what that path looks like, I would like to hear them.
What is the one change you would make to help pull Marco Island back toward the vision we already agreed on? Please send me an email and let me know: RickWforMarco2026@gmail.com.
Marco is home. Let's protect our future.
- Rick
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Political advertisement paid for and approved by Rick Woodworth, 2026 candidate for Marco Island City Council