Cape Coral businesses worry over parking loss in road expansion

Reporter: Taylor Wirtz
Published: Updated:

Cape Coral is set to undergo a significant change with a road expansion project on Cape Coral Parkway, increasing it from four lanes to six.

The city says this will improve traffic flow, reduce congestion and shorten travel times.

However, business owners along the affected stretch express mixed feelings. While they appreciate efforts to streamline traffic, they worry about the side effects, particularly the loss of parking spaces.

The project will expand Cape Coral Parkway from Coronado Parkway to Del Prado Boulevard and optimize traffic signal timing across 11 key intersections.

The expansion will result in the loss of about 47 parking spots in front of businesses.

“Those spots are very valuable, very valuable,” said Frank Kelly, owner of Barunch. “That’s the only shot I get when I come in for Friday night. Hopefully, we can do something else in the back and add some additional parking or come up with another solution.”

Officials involved with the project are working to find and provide alternate parking to compensate for the lost spaces.

The evaluation study for the expansion is only 30% complete, indicating that changes won’t happen immediately.

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