A new study finds the Cape Coral-Fort Myers area leads the nation in terms of “job sprawl.” This means more jobs are being created in the suburbs of Southwest Florida– instead of the city’s downtown and business district.
The study is from the Brookings Institute and it found the Cape Coral-Fort Myers metropolitan area had the highest increase in jobs located more than 10 miles from the city’s downtown area in the past decade.
Most big cities in the US saw significant job growth in their business districts, but jobs here are popping up in the suburbs.
Don Paight, Executive Director of the Fort Myers Community Redevelopment Agency, said there are a lot of reasons for that. For one: he said geographic factors stunt some job growth downtown.
“Because you have the river on one side, you have residential areas like McGregor Blvd. on the west side, and the core area of downtown is a historic district, which means you can’t tear buildings down and there is really not a lot of room for new in-fill construction,” he explained. “So, we are somewhat limited in what we can develop downtown.”
Paight also said the relatively new suburban areas of Southwest Florida have been slowly recovering from the recession in the past few years—bringing in both new renters and businesses.
While Paight said a thriving downtown area is important for any city, he also says job sprawl here has actually kept traffic in the City of Palms at a manageable level.
“If everyone was coming into downtown every day to go to work and leaving at five o’clock at night, you’d have some pretty heavy congestion on the roads and bridges,” Paight said. “So, it’s not all bad as long as you can maintain a strong central business district and an area people identify as the center city.”
You can check out the Brookings Institute study here.
