Petition Grows for Good Mood Ranch to Stay

Good Mood Ranch in East Naples was asked to pack up and leave as well as face ongoing fines by South Florida Water Management District and Collier County this July. 

“South Florida Water Management District wants no farm here, wants us to restore it to wetlands,” said Good Mood Ranch, LLC owner Luc Goemaere.

Many neighbors want the ranchers to stay, according to interviews of residents living in the area and a petition on Change.org. 

Good Mood Ranch is a family-run agricultural tourism business that has operated in the East Naples neighborhood of Sabal Palm for about three years.

One neighbor complained about vegetation removal and other concerns she has at the 22-acre ranch, which is home to hundreds of domestic farm animals ranging from bunnies and ducks to donkeys and cows. Complaints from a 30-year resident of the area have led to $100 per day fines from Collier County code enforcement over the past year and an order to leave the premises within 60 days from South Florida Water Management District, said Goemaere in an interview with the reporter on Sunday. 

Code complaints can no longer be made anonymously per state law. County records reveal complaints from a neighbor about fencing, lack of permits, the digging of a lake, vegetation removal, thin cows, and other concerns. 

Some of these have been dropped, but vegetation removal remains an area of contention with the county and SFWMD. 

Goemaere repeated how much money he has invested in the farm and in legal fees. 

The property is located near Picayune Strand State Forest as well as near landscape companies, residential properties, and wetland areas, but Goemaere maintains his property is zoned rural agricultural and is operating as a farm, thus it is not subject to some county regulations. These and other legal battles continue to play out as Goemaere intends to appeal Collier County code enforcement findings and push back with SFWMD, acquiring mounting legal fees. 

“Goemaere translates to good mood,” said wife Karen Goemaere. 

Despite the challenges, she did remain seemingly in good spirits during tours of the farm on Sunday, teaching about the animals.

The Goemaeres, who lived on Marco Island and now in Golden Gate Estates, have been married for 23 years, raising children, now ages 14 and 18, who have also worked to build Good Mood Ranch over the recent years. Luc manufactured trains prior to fulfilling his dream to become a farmer. 

Naples residents John and Diana Holden toured the Good Mood Ranch on Sunday with their daughter Olivia, age nine. The Holdens are regulars to Good Mood Ranch, they said. 

“Olivia, being a little person, gets a lot of attention,” her dad said.

Among her favorite animals is the alpaca. “Olivia talks about him all the time,” her dad said. 

The alpaca spit on mom Diana, creating a funny family memory. 

With cows, pigs, donkeys, and other medium-sized animals, as well as large flocks of chickens, ducks, peacocks and pigeons, rabbits, and guinea pigs, there are easily 600 animals on the property, Karen Goemaere said.

Yuni and Iyle Pavon, along with their son Lucas, four, and daughter Alice, two, visited from Cape Coral on Sunday. The Pavon family was in search of a farm with animals that allowed tours, and Good Mood Ranch was all they discovered as an option within reasonable driving distance. 

“We don’t want them all day on the TV, phone, and computer. We want them to go outside and play with cows and cats. It’s the only barnyard experience in South Florida,” said Yuni Pavon. 

The Goemaeres are creative in their design of the ranch, which includes antique John Deere equipment in pristine condition, gem mining, miniature golf, zip lines, a climbing pole, shaded tricycle rides, a train ride, small carnival rides and games, and other activities and animal encounters. 

“Where do they expect this to go?” pondered John Holden aloud. “It’s in the country already, and this has always been the country,” he said. 

“This is a wholesome activity. It’s like being home on the farm for the kids. It’s the family farm a lot of kids can’t have,” Diane Holden said. 

It’s incredibly clean, she added. 

“We used our life savings to prepare this for our children, for other children and for all the children,” said Karen Goemaere. “Adults get really happy, too,” she added. 

Good Mood Ranch is popular among families seeking a farm animal experience for children and is often a place for school-aged children to tour, providing lessons for homeschoolers and providing a place for seniors to connect with animals, improving their health and life enrichment as well, Karen Goemaere said. 

“We try to be a five-star farmer,” she said. 

SFWMD asked the Goemaeres to take down all structures, remove any concrete pads, bring in new soil, and plant about 19,000 trees, particularly cypress trees, that are several feet tall, according to the Goemaeres. 

It’s that or pay mitigation fees, which could cost a million dollars or more. 

“It makes no sense that they should be punishing him, that they are targeting him,” said Judy White, a neighbor in Sabal Palm who owns and operates Jade Orchids.

White said she experienced some strife from a neighbor early on when she started out in Sabal Palm as well, but she overcame that decades ago.

“It’s not just today that people are like that. People are people. They’re going to fuss and moan and groan because they think you’re interfering with them,” White said. 

Otherwise though, the community is very tight-knit and helps each other with everything from pet care to moving a grand piano, as witnessed during recent interviews and tours of the area by this reporter. 

Good Mood Ranch is a haven for farm animals that people cannot keep anymore, too. 

“You can see when people are there enjoying the experience how much joy he [Goemaere] gets out of it,” said Ashlee Anderson Rivera, another neighbor in the Sabal Palm area. 

Regarding a potential animal abuse or neglect case, documentation from Collier County Code Enforcement reveals that a visit by inspector Cara Frank in November 2024 did reveal what appeared to her to be some cows that were well and others that were thin and weak calves. However, the Goemaeres replied that they had just rescued cows two weeks prior from a farming operation and that the animals were in recovery in the Goemaeres’ care. Also, as a farming operation, they are not subject to county regulations but instead federal regulations, the Goemaeres stated and county officials since acknowledged. 

The animals are subject to USDA licensing and inspection, however documents were not immediately available on the online USDA inspection portal as they are for other facilities located within Collier County that care for and exhibit animals, such as Ngala Animal Preserve, Kowiachobee, the Naples Zoo, Shy Wolf Sanctuary and others— all of which have some inspection reports available online. 

Requests by this reporter are pending with SFWMD and the USDA. SFWMD communications personnel did not immediately respond to requests for information. 

The 60 days to remove all animals and structures while making other improvements begins on July 25, according to Goemaere. 

Good Mood Ranch, 306 Sabal Palm Rd. in Naples, is open 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays during the summer, as well as Tuesday through Sunday the rest of the year. Entry to Good Mood Ranch costs $18. Children under age four are free. Private parties are by reservation, 239-351-6846. 

The petition on change.org had about 1,500 signatures as of early Tuesday. 

The direct link is https://www.change.org/p/save-the-good-mood-ranch-do-not-donate-on-here.