A group of homeowners north of Rotary Park marched in the rain earlier this week to protest the pre-development efforts of a group seeking a way to make 380 untouched acres in South Cape Coral attractive to a future developer.
Some 60 residents braved a soggy morning to walk a route along a conservation easement north of Rotary Park put in place decades ago to ensure nobody ever built a road there. A conservation easement is created when a landowner sells the development rights to a piece of land but still owns and can use the parcel for things like cattle grazing.
The protesters carried signs of opposition, and even tied up yellow-and-black plastic tape with “Crime Scene” emblazoned on it where a road to the land may someday be built across the easement.
“When I learned about this potential development I couldn't believe that it was possible,” said Ruth Hage, an organizer of the grassroots opposition and nearby resident. “This development could have very easily gone in right under our noses.”
Hage and her neighbors are the latest entity to push back against the Zemel family or the trust that bears the family name, which includes the real estate south of Rotary Park.
Stoking their concern is this is one of many plots of land purchased by the Zemel family, one of Southwest Florida’s earliest big landowners. The family’s efforts to turn several of the large tracts of wetlands they have purchased throughout Lee County and Cape Coral into developable acreage have been ongoing for decades.
The Zemels have a long legal history of land-use lawsuits in Lee County, and while representatives of the Zemel family say there is no developer in place for the land south of Rotary Park they are working with the City of Cape Coral to see if the land can legally be prepared for that eventuality.
“When I learned about this potential development I couldn't believe that it was possible,” said Ruth Hage, an organizer of the grassroots opposition and nearby resident. “This development could have very easily gone in right under our noses.”
One of the pre-development group, Annette M. Barbaccia, a commercial manager with Cape Coral’s Miloff Aubuchon Realty Group, Inc., said she “feels that this is a win-win for the city and county.”
Barbaccia said she is working with a team of environmental and planning consultants because the group is only pursuing a conceptual plan as none are developers.
The group has determined about 240 acres of the tract are “off limits” because of sensitive environmental concerns.
She said the group is willing to donate to the city 54 mangrove-thick acres in the northwestern corner of the property in exchange for a roughly 2-acre entrance and exit road into the land, which would cross a conservation easement that has been in place for years to deny that very type of use.
That would leave 90 acres of developable land that could house a 20-story, 300-room hotel and homes, as well as parking and other amenities including boat slips if approved.
A message left by WGCU with Melissa Mickey, Cape Coral’s spokeswoman, concerning the city council’s early discussions with the group, was not returned.
“What we are trying to come up with is what could be developed,” Barbaccia said. “A developer would have to come back in the future and do a real plan.”
Environmental reporting for WGCU is funded in part by VoLo Foundation, a non-profit with a mission to accelerate change and global impact by supporting science-based climate solutions, enhancing education, and improving health.
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