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Curious Gulf Coast: How Much Population Growth Can SWFL Expect?

Daniel McCullough
/
Unsplash
A man draws out building plans

This week, WGCU is answering your questions about development in Southwest Florida in a multi-platform Curious Gulf Coast series, beginning with a look at projections of population growth.

Headlines tout Cape Coral, Fort Myers and Lehigh Acres as some of the fastest growing cities in America, but it's not always clear who is compiling this data. So, what data are the professionals actually using when planning for population growth?

WGCU reporter Quincy Walters joins Gulf Coast Live to talk about putting those numbers in full context.

He is joined by Don Scott, the executive director of the Lee County Metropolitan Planning Organization. Scott talks about what the real numbers mean for development in Southwest Florida.

Rachel Iacovone is a reporter and associate producer of Gulf Coast Live for WGCU News. Rachel came to WGCU as an intern in 2016, during the presidential race. She went on to cover Florida Gulf Coast University students at President Donald Trump's inauguration on Capitol Hill and Southwest Floridians in attendance at the following day's Women's March on Washington.Rachel was first contacted by WGCU when she was managing editor of FGCU's student-run media group, Eagle News. She helped take Eagle News from a weekly newspaper to a daily online publication with TV and radio branches within two years, winning the 2016 Society of Professional Journalists Mark of Excellence Award for Best Use of Multimedia in a cross-platform series she led for National Coming Out Day. She also won the Mark of Excellence Award for Feature Writing for her five-month coverage of an FGCU student's transition from male to female.As a WGCU reporter, she produced the first radio story in WGCU's Curious Gulf Coast project, which answered the question: Does SWFL Have More Cases of Pediatric Cancer?Rachel graduated from Florida Gulf Coast University with a bachelor's degree in journalism.
Quincy Walters is a reporter and backup host for WGCU.