CAPE CORAL, Fla. — You don’t have to drive far through Cape Coral to see the city is booming.
Houses… businesses… plenty are flocking to Southwest Florida as their permanent residence. And with so much traffic, there are plenty of projects that follow.
“We’re still experiencing that explosive growth that we experienced last year.”
It’s been an impressive year for the city of Cape Coral. That’s according to Mayor John Gunter.
"Out of the $240 million in the first quarter, about $220 million was single-family homes," he says. "A vast majority of that first-quarter number was all in single-family residential permits that were pooled here in the city.”
That equates to a little more than 400 single-family home permits a month. And it comes at a time when the city is laying out some new goals ahead.
In the mayor’s most recent monthly e-newsletter, Gunter says some of the city’s top priorities include the expansion of utilities. Things like city parks and residential growth.
“That’s one of the reasons why some people move to a city- what’s available for their children and kids or even adults to walk thru the parks with either biking or walking trails. It’s very important to us in Cape Coral and that’s why we presented a $60 million go-bond almost two years ago to the residents.”
That go-bond is expected to help in the construction of five new parks that got underway just recently. But it hasn’t been all smooth sailing.
Also mentioned in the newsletter are the challenges. Maybe, most notably, are the delays in bulk waste pick-up. An ongoing issue for many residents, Gunter says the city needs to hold those hired contractors accountable. Discussions are being made among the council to have it fixed.
“I think we’ll get it resolved. There’s a lot of moving parts, a lot of variables but the fact of the matter is we pick up once a week. We ask residents to sit their trash out at the curb with the expectation of us, as a city, of coming by and picking it up. I think that we have to make sure that we fulfill that obligation.”
It’s been a little more than a year now since Gunter took office. Looking back on that time, he says he’s proud of the work he and his team have achieved. But— as he says— there’s still plenty of work ahead.
“I always say that I’ll take 30% of smart growth over 70% of growth any day of the week. I think we’re moving forward. Developing plans and policies so we can have incentive programs for that commercial and economic growth.”
