Building Florida's Communion Community

Domino's Pizza magnate Tom Monaghan is betting on his New Urbanist vision of a faith-based community outside of Naples, Florida.

1 minute read

June 23, 2006, 1:00 PM PDT

By Chris Steins @planetizen


What do New Urbanism, thousands of acres of dusty old tomato fields and a 65-foot-tall crucifix have in common? Two things, actually: Tom Monaghan, founder of Domino's Pizza, and Ave Maria, his future Catholic dream town located 17 miles northeast of Naples, Fla. Even as home prices soften in much of Florida, Monaghan is pushing ahead with his Sunshine State utopia, which he hopes will eventually house as many as 25,000 doctrinaire Catholics by the time it is built out in the next decade or so. Monaghan has invested $400 million of his own money into the project, which had its groundbreaking in March.

...The catchment for Ave Maria is a mighty one: there are more than 65 million baptized Catholics in the U.S. And having a town built just for them is not a bad bet. Anne Morrow Doherty, herself a devout Catholic, told the Chicago Tribune that she will move to Ave Maria: 'It's a miracle. We need communities such as this and God has chosen the Catholic Church to build it.' "

Thanks to Peter Slatin

Thursday, June 22, 2006 in The Slatin Report

portrait of professional woman

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching. Mary G., Urban Planner

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching.

Mary G., Urban Planner

Use Code 25for25 at checkout for 25% off an annual plan!

Redlining map of Oakland and Berkeley.

Rethinking Redlining

For decades we have blamed 100-year-old maps for the patterns of spatial racial inequity that persist in American cities today. An esteemed researcher says: we’ve got it all wrong.

May 15, 2025 - Alan Mallach

Interior of Place Versailles mall in Montreal, Canada.

Montreal Mall to Become 6,000 Housing Units

Place Versailles will be transformed into a mixed-use complex over the next 25 years.

May 22, 2025 - CBC

Logo for Planetizen Federal Action Tracker with black and white image of U.S. Capitol with water ripple overlay.

Planetizen Federal Action Tracker

A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.

May 21, 2025 - Diana Ionescu

Flat modern glass office tower with "County of Santa Clara" sign.

Santa Clara County Dedicates Over $28M to Affordable Housing

The county is funding over 600 new affordable housing units via revenue from a 2016 bond measure.

May 23 - San Francisco Chronicle

Aerial view of dense urban center with lines indicating smart city concept.

Why a Failed ‘Smart City’ Is Still Relevant

A Google-backed proposal to turn an underused section of Toronto waterfront into a tech hub holds relevant lessons about privacy and data.

May 23 - Governing

Pale yellow Sears kit house with red tile roof in Sylva, North Carolina.

When Sears Pioneered Modular Housing

Kit homes sold in catalogs like Sears and Montgomery Ward made homeownership affordable for midcentury Americans.

May 23 - The Daily Yonder