Forget the cultural stuff surrounding Ave Maria. Let's talk for a moment about how this was built.

Although the drought situation is getting better at the moment in FL, the fact remains that huge population increases in FL are placing incredible, unsustainable strains on that state's water system. At current rates of growth, there simply will not be enough water to go around. Another huge real estate development such as this only exacerbates the problem.

Moreover, I hear from people in South Florida how developing former farmlands and pastures (in large part, by filling in wetlands) has devastated local ecosystems.

It sure sounds to me that's exactly what's going on at Ave Maria, when your article states that "it sits amid a flat, swampy, and desolate expanse of tomato fields and orange groves 30 miles northeast of Naples". This is (another) enviromental disaster in real-time.

I can't wait for a hurricane to flatten the place...or for them to run out of drinking water. Whichever, I'm easy.

not to mention the land on which Ave Maria-ville is being built was formerly a portion of a wildlife refuge which was declassified as such and then sold at a discount to Mr. Dominos...

I'd be interested in the exploitation of the workers building the Heaven on earth for as with Iraq the outcome of this endeavor if built on the backs of men and women workers not paid a living wage in this age is a crime. If none exists more power to him.