Motivations for the land owners and Collier county were in alignment. With the RLSA in place, land owners could develop under planned urban development guidelines that could be approved by the county under it's long range growth plans.

With the RLSA zoning in place, development can only occur if other lands in the RLSA are set aside as non-developable private lands. The RLSA covers 185,000 acres, of which 130,000 acres will be permanently protected. There is a detailed formula as to how many acres are set aside to develop one acre. Some set aside lands are more valuable environmentally than others. The exchange averages three acres of set aside lands, to one developed acres.