CAPE CORAL, Fla. — If you are driving through south Cape Coral, you may have noticed signs, reading 'OPPOSE huge development'.
It's the latest push against a proposal ahead of a city council vote to allow Redfish Pointe to be sold to developers. Many people who live nearby are worried about new traffic and greater storm surge risk.
Jim Pavec lives in Cape Coral.
"With Ian, we had water everywhere, about a foot of water in our house, a lot of these [nearby] places did and if those mangroves were gone it could've been worse," Pavec said.
Just a few doors down from Pavec, lives Joseph Bonasia. They both feel, a change to the land close to their homes could mean future storms could do more damage than Ian did.
"There are several hundred acres of wetlands, and some uplands behind where I live and everybody else who lives here. It's owned by the Zemel trust," Bonasia said.
The current plan on the table includes building 800 residential units, 38 thousand square feet of commercial space and 300 hotel rooms. Annette Barbaccia represents the owners of this land. Fox 4 interviewed her in late September.
"I think this could be a beautiful waterfront community that preserves the majority of the site," Barbaccia said.
Those plans also include adding new mangroves to help with flood mitigation. Even still, there's been resistance in city council meetings and now, signs are planted all around south Cape.
"It would degrade the neighborhood, it would be a less desirable place to live with all the mangroves gone, along with wildlife," Pavec said.
