Cape Coral leaders discuss beautifying medians, lowering parking standards

Cape Coral city leaders are considering multiple projects related to transportation, from beautifying medians to changing parking standards.

Driving down Cultural Park Boulevard, it’s impossible to miss the tree-filled medians. Cape Coral adopted a landscaping design theme that features many types of trees, but the city arborist, Omar Leon, is worried the initiative might become too costly to maintain.

“We’ve had to retrofit the design because it’s not going to be sustainable in the long term,” Leon said.

At a Wednesday transportation advisory meeting, Leon proposed a change to the functional classification of all median themes and their intensity levels. If passed, he believes the city could afford the steady growth of landscaping.

But some council members pushed back, wondering if all this might negatively impact irrigation schedules.

“I think there could be a multi-phased approach, where we can show more results in the community with that multi-phased approach,” said Mayor John Gunter.

Medians weren’t the only hot topic of discussion. The council also debated whether to adopt lower parking standards.

“We have a parking requirement and our land development code that I think maybe we can take a look at, to see if we can improve upon some other types of parking requirement adjustments for certain businesses,” Gunter said.

This would allow businesses to keep their doors open no matter how many parking spaces they have instead of seeking opportunities somewhere else.