Cape Coral’s mayor lays out the city’s plans for the future

There are big plans in the works for Southwest Florida’s largest city. From attracting companies to offer jobs to traffic growth and safety, Cape Coral has big plans for the future.

Cape Coral was growing almost too fast before Hurricane Ian. The storm put a pause on that. Now, a little more than 100 days later, the city is revving up again

“I think we’ll get back to where we were pre-Ian pretty quickly,” said Cape Coral Mayor John Gunter.

Gunter said that is why now is the time to again look at the city’s strategic plan: Cape Compass. What do city leaders need to do to set up the Cape for success as they look ahead to 2030?

“Our city is 50% built out. So we’re looking at the other 50% moving forward where we’re going to be,” said Gunter.

The mayor said the city’s first priority remains hurricane recovery. That may delay other priorities listed in the plan. When the Cape is in good shape, Gunter said his top two priorities are public safety and economic development.

Gunter hopes to convince businesses to bring high-paying jobs to the Cape through ad volerum tax reductions and revenue based on results.

“We want them to prove in time that they delivered exactly what they promised. And then that’s how we’ve constructed our incentive package. Once they meet the criteria that we’ve established in agreement, then those incentives would kick in,” Gunter said.

Many of the plans listed in Cape Compass are long-term, but what can we see in 2023? The mayor points to The Cove at 47th Terrace and Bimini West projects.

“Once the CRA areas sees those areas projects moving forward in the development, I think it’s going to spur a lot of additional growth in that area,” said Gunter.

The mayor believes growth is a good thing for Cape Coral’s future and expects most hurricane recovery efforts to be done in six months.