They’ve held forums, gathered petitions, packed City Hall chambers and met individually with members of the city council all in the name of trying to stop the city of Cape Coral from allowing future development in an area they say is critical to the environment.
Long time owners of this 350-acres in southwestern Cape Coral are hoping to convince the city to re-designate about a third of the property from its current status as a nature preserve to mixed use development.
The property is a mix of uplands and wet lands. Just to the north is Rotary Park. If any development is allowed by the city then an access road would have to be built through Rotary Park. That would nullify a decades-old agreement to keep the area as a conservation easement, said resident Paul Bonasia.
Bonasia and others will gather near the park Saturday for a demonstration.
His group, Protect our Wetlands in Cape Coral, has been trying to draw attention to matter and stop any large-scale development from being developed on the ecologically sensitive area since learning the owners wanted to sell the land in 2023.
“We are very active and we flooded the city council [chamber] with 100 people at one meeting and they were saying ‘Well, that’s not even before us,” Bonasia said. "But we wanted to let them know we are here.”
A re-designation from nature preserve to mixed-use development is a crucial step for allowing any sort of development and that vastly increases the value of the property for a future developer.
The discussion of a re-designation was expected to come before the zoning board next week, but that has been cancelled, Bonasia said. Still the demonstration will go on.
It’s from 8:30 to 10 a.m.
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