Cape Coral residents react to increasing development, expansion

Cape Coral is expanding at a quick pace, with a lot of housing and retail on the horizon. Some residents think that the development is great, while others say it will just cause congestion.

On Wednesday morning, the Cape Coral Planning and Zoning Commission will discuss more developments for the city: single-family homes, multifamily homes and shopping centers. Many such sites can already be seen under construction throughout Cape Coral, especially on Pine Island Road, as the city tries to keep up with growth. Some neighbors say they are excited about the development, feeling it’s needed with more and more people moving to the area.

But others say there’s just not enough room for it, and fear the roads will become untenably crowded. Hal Frank has lived in Cape Coral for six years and says that in the last two, he has seen a lot of construction and a lot of “coming soon” signs. He is not a fan.

“We don’t have the infrastructure for it,” Frank said. “We don’t have the roads for it. I mean, our roads are tiny as they are. That, you know, and the pollution, and the water quality will go down. More crime, potentially.”

Raphael Ramos has lived in Cape Coral for the last 24 years. He says he has seen the city redevelop over the years, but has never seen this many apartments and shopping centers under construction at once. Ramos says he’s glad Cape Coral is keeping up with the growth.

“The younger people are coming in—before, this used to be an older community,” Ramos said. “Now, we got younger kids coming in with families. And that’s the idea, ‘with families,’ because you go to the waters, you’ve got beautiful waters, you go to Pine Island, ’cause that’s all being built up will all the condos and everything. Yes, you can always have truck traffic, doesn’t matter where you live in. But the idea is, just go with the flow.”

The Cape Coral Planning and Zoning Commission meeting is scheduled to start at 9 a.m.