The $500 million plan, including the Four Freedoms Park ground lease, is approved.

City Council  ·  Wednesday, October 21

Six hours, and every big-ticket item passed. Two of them needed a second try.

The outgoing Council's next-to-last regular meeting ran nearly six hours, and Council voted to extend citizens input to fit everyone who filled out a card. Bimini East cleared its final hearing 6 to 1. The trash-contract protests that Council sent to a state judge two weeks ago came back and were denied outright. The $34.55 million Yacht Club Phase 2 failed on a tie, then passed after a member changed her vote. The $30.95 million hospital deal passed after two attempts to delay it went nowhere.

The scorecard

Bimini East: approved, and the preschool question is still open

Assistant City Manager Mark Mason walked through the final terms: up to about 900 residential units (the zoning would allow 2,500), a 250-room hotel, 150,000 to 200,000 square feet of medical space, about 120,000 square feet of commercial, a 4,000 square foot police substation, a 50-slip marina with half the slips for public use, and about 2,000 parking spaces in up to four garages, 480 of them permanently public. Crown Development pays $24.3 million for about 20.1 acres of city land over ten years, with a $1 million deposit. The city side includes a 95 percent tax increment rebate capped at $45.75 million through September 30, 2042, and $11 million in CRA money for George's Garage and the Trumbull apartments, which comes back to the city only if no certificate of occupancy is issued by October 1, 2032.

On Four Freedoms Park, City Manager Mike Ilczyszyn said current VPK students finish this year, but the program will take no new enrollments until a replacement site is found. The South Cape community center he first named cannot be state-approved because it has no playground. Developer Larry Nygaard told Council the park "simply can't" stay as it is, because the marina needs access through part of it, and said its playground equipment would move to a new park inside the project. A request to designate the park historic is pending; the city manager said it does not pause anything and Council will decide on the nomination. Councilmember Long cast the lone no. Kaduk said she supports the project but objected to having 20 days to review a $500 million agreement. The transcript's roll call does not clearly capture every name.

On traffic, staff said a traffic study comes at site plan review, not now. On noise, the city manager said the entertainment district expands west, not south of Cape Coral Parkway, and Councilmember Lastra said she is drafting a stricter noise ordinance. She also said Nygaard committed to holding a town hall.

Trash: the state review is off, and FCC moves ahead

Councilmember Donnell, who voted on October 7 to send both bid protests to the state Division of Administrative Hearings, asked for the reconsideration. He said a review could run into spring, the current contract ends September 2027, and he did not want to "leave it to chance." Steinke said he had reviewed the outside counsel's evaluation and that the top bidder "won by several lengths." Long questioned whether Council could reconsider a matter already assigned to a state judge; the city attorney said it can. Kaduk and Lastra said an independent judge was the cleaner path, noting Waste Pro had offered in writing to extend its contract.

The result, on four 5 to 3 votes: neither protest goes to the state, both are denied, and the award process with top-ranked FCC Environmental Services continues. Before the vote, Waste Pro's representative told Council a denial without a hearing would leave it "no choice" but to sue in circuit court. FCC told Council its price was 14 percent below the second-ranked bidder. Later, Kaduk moved to bar the transfer station option; staff said it is not in the FCC contract and would need a future Council vote, and she withdrew the motion.

Yacht Club: a tie, a recess, and a changed vote

Phase 2 covers civil site work, utilities, a lift station, beach amenities and new fuel tanks. Kaduk and Lastra questioned spending before Council sees the KMB Marine hotel proposal. The city manager said the city is contractually required to deliver water, sewer and fire flow to the Boathouse site, and that without fire flow it cannot issue the restaurant a permit. The first vote failed 4 to 4. A motion to postpone until a final KMB agreement failed 3 to 5. Councilmember Lehman then moved to reconsider, saying the city is "committed to the site work" and could face legal costs with the Boathouse, and the item passed 5 to 3. Staff added that utility allowances can be upsized for a future hotel but cannot push the price above the guaranteed maximum.

Hospital: no second for a delay

Lastra moved to table the HCA incentives until after the statewide property tax amendment on the November 3 ballot; it died without a second. Lehman moved to push it to November 19 and the new Council, then withdrew. Mayor Gunter said Cape Coral was second in line behind another city until the package was offered, and the city manager agreed the incentives were why HCA chose Cape Coral. The mayor cited about 304 hospital beds in a city of roughly 225,000, against a statewide average he put at 2.48 per 1,000. Lee Health's Chris Lopez had asked Council to pull the item. It passed with seven ayes.

State Review  ·  Florida DOGE, October 16

The state's efficiency letter calls Cape Coral lean, then lists where to cut.

At the top of Wednesday's meeting, the city manager called the Florida DOGE review "one of the most favorable" issued to a city so far. He said it found no misappropriation, illegal use of funds or DEI spending. The letter itself does not use those words; it neither raises nor rules out those issues. Here is what it does say.

Staffing is lean overall. Cape Coral sits below the median of the state's dataset in employees per 1,000 residents. Management is deep in places. The review counted 174 managers across 1,554 budgeted civilian positions, up to nine layers, and as many as 20 supervisors with zero or one direct report. It suggests up to 17 management positions could be realigned and puts potential personnel savings at $3.8 million to $6.5 million a year. Vacancies it flags for elimination include the deputy finance director and assistant accounting manager.

Police vacancies. The department is authorized for 487 positions and carrying 84 vacancies, about 17 percent, or roughly $7 million in budgeted, unfilled salaries. The letter asks the city to keep that money for future police needs rather than "low-value end of year spending."

Contracting. The review found a large number of sole-source and thin-competition awards, many for wastewater parts, and "over $100M in change orders and contract amendments" in recent years, which it describes as additional non-competitive spending. It lists audit candidates including change orders, capital project bidding, 34 awards with no procurement type listed, and purchases of Grammarly, Perplexity, GoDaddy and OpenAI software.

Hearing Examiner  ·  Tuesday, October 20

Neighbors pack the room over SW 32nd Place. The ruling is still to come.

Island Pearl's owners want to vacate about 36,018 square feet of SW 32nd Place north of Pine Island Road, running between the two blocks they have assembled just west of Burnt Store Road, in favor of a 20-foot public cross-access easement down the middle. Staff recommended approval with ten conditions, including a $210,686.94 tree fund payment and coordination with Lee County or FDOT on turning movements at Pine Island Road, since the driveway is not identified as full access in the state's access plan.

Five neighbors spoke against it. They described the street as a detour during crashes at the Pine Island, Burnt Store and Veterans intersection, a route for school buses and emergency vehicles, and a drainage path during Ian. Several said the 500-foot notice radius was too small and that the plans differ from what was described at a 2020 neighborhood meeting. The applicant's engineer said the road is not closing and that the project's stormwater system would cut discharge by about half. Staff noted that commercial corridor zoning across from homes triggers a 20-foot landscape buffer, or 10 feet with a wall. Hearing Examiner Mary Ann Lucas closed the hearing without ruling; her written order comes next, then City Council.

Approved the same morning

Bimini East streets. The city's request to vacate Atlantic Court, the north half of Manor Court, the south part of Triton Court East and interior easements, about 2.4 acres, was approved with conditions, including turnarounds for the dead ends. Five parcels remain privately owned, four homes and an auto repair shop; staff said the city or the developer is negotiating for them. The examiner said she may add restrictions based on a letter from Manor Condominium. Kismet and Del Prado. About 70 acres of city land at the former academic village site was rezoned from commercial to 28.4 acres industrial, for expansion of the existing industrial park, and 41.6 acres preservation. 825 Santa Barbara Blvd. A special exception to reopen the 1987 assisted living building, limited to the proposed mental health facility, with visitor and delivery hours of 8 AM to 5 PM. Also approved: canal-side vacations on the Majestic Canal and at 923 and 929 Dolphin Dr, a hammerhead vacation for a seawall at SW 17th Pl, and a rear easement at 1308 Andalusia Blvd for a five-unit building.

FY 2026 in Numbers  ·  Department Quarterly Reports

The year-end reports: fewer new homes, half the commercial permits, and a Coral Grove delay.

The city's fiscal year closed September 30, and departments filed their fourth-quarter reports this month. The building numbers tell the clearest story.

By our arithmetic from the report's totals, single-family permits fell about 17 percent from FY 2025, commercial permits 50 percent, and applications 14 percent, to 28,040. The report's own percentage cells for 2026 show smaller drops that do not match its totals, so we used the totals. Homes still finished: 2,489 single-family certificates of occupancy valued at $1.05 billion, plus 192 commercial COs at $286 million. Permitting staff stands at 25. On the new five-day state deadline for small home jobs, 2,582 of 2,596 reviews met it since July 1.

Economic development. The Coral Grove town center on Pine Island Road has a revised schedule "due to reported market changes": infrastructure starts January 2027 and first buildings in spring or summer 2027. A 175,360 square foot Walmart Supercenter at 2210 SW Pine Island Rd has an approved site plan and its building permit is in review. CoStar data in the report puts Cape Coral's apartment vacancy at 20.9 percent, against 1.7 percent for office and 2.3 percent for retail. Industrial vacancy rose 2.4 points to 5.3 percent. August unemployment was 4.9 percent, up from 4.5 percent a year earlier. A home-services roundtable told staff about 60 percent of certificate of occupancy requests fail, mostly over missing subcontractor paperwork.

Public works. Yellow Fever Creek, first due in February 2024, is set for a ribbon cutting October 30 after the original contractor was removed and its surety finished the work. The Bimini Basin mooring field is on hold pending Bimini East. Hancock Bridge Parkway drainage now runs to January 2027. The Yacht Club seawall is 43 percent through its schedule and 52 percent through its budget, with completion set for August 2027. North 1 East's four main contracts range from 13 to 40 percent complete.

Utilities and grants. The $400 million North Water Reclamation Facility remains on schedule for December 2030, with design and construction-manager contracts in negotiation. The northeast reservoir pipeline is 42 percent built. The city holds 60 active grants totaling $230.2 million, with $197.9 million still to be drawn; all are reimbursement grants.

The Weeks Ahead

This week's meetings are cancelled. Not for the election: there was nothing on the agenda.

Wed, Oct 28. CRA and Committee of the Whole: cancelled. At the end of Wednesday's meeting the city manager said staff had no items for the Committee of the Whole and asked Council to cancel it; the CRA's one consent item moves to a new 3 PM meeting on November 2. Council approved both cancellations unanimously. Nothing in the record ties them to the election.

Fri, Oct 30, 10 AM. Yellow Fever Creek Preserve ribbon cutting, Del Prado Blvd N.

Mon, Nov 2. CRA at 3 PM, Council at 4 PM. The North 3 assessment repeal and the hearing on the $14.59 million budget amendment. As Kaduk reminded the audience, this is the same Council, not the new one.

Tue, Nov 3. General election. Wed, Nov 4, 9 AM: Planning and Zoning. Thu, Nov 5, 2 PM: Jaycee Park concession proposals due. Sat, Nov 7: Councilmember Lehman's town hall is cancelled because of the Veterans Day parade. Tue, Nov 17, 9 AM: Hearing Examiner. The new Council is expected to be seated November 18, per the September 28 minutes.