Cape Coral City Council discussion on Burnt Store Road District Plan continues
The discussion on the proposed Burnt Store Road District Plan will continue once again, as Cape Coral City Council still did not come to a consensus of what parcels to include, or exclude from the plan at a recent meeting.
The discussion began with background on BURST from Planning Team Coordinator Wyatt Daltry, as he was requesting some guidance from council for the possibility of certain properties being removed from consideration before the plan is transmitted to the state.
In 2021, the city’s Development Ser-vices prepared a vision plan for the Burnt Store Road Corridor — a new gateway from the northwest Cape. Daltry said the area is becoming right for development, and the city is not too late in creating future land use map classification.
“Generally, we stopped around Kismet and Van Buren with the extension of Burnt Store because south of the area is platted lots,” he said.
The presentation showed multiple maps, which had five separate areas each depicted with different colors. Some of the properties are either city-owned, or were identified in the last discussion as Westchester Estates and the Acorn property.
“We are requesting guidance from council if there are any properties you have concern about or wish to remove,” Daltry said. “This was a good idea. The idea of a specific corridor for Burnt Store is warranted. We need a gateway — something different from every other district we have. Staff continue to support this idea. We hope you see the value with this as well.”
Some council members began the discussion by sharing which properties they want to have removed from BURST, which for some included Westchester Estates and Acorn properties, as there are some private property issues.
“It allows us to recognize that property rights are important, and the land use described to that,” Councilmember Joe Kilraine said. “They bought it and owned it — is something that has to be upheld. It allows us to put in the commercial footprint that is necessary. The people up there are going to be in dire need for those types of opportunities that won’t be available if we don’t take this opportunity in hand.”
Daltry said staff would like to see all the properties retained, as excluding those properties would take 25% of what is mapped for BURST.
“This is a policy decision — what do you want to see with this corridor. What do we want to see here in the future,” he said, adding that he does not see the gateway developing in the next 10 years.
Others were not in favor of excluding any of the parcels.
“We went through the budget workshop and had two to three professionals talk about the crucial need of commercial,” Councilmember Keith Long said.
He said he has to assume that if the city were in violation of any property rights, the city attorney would not have let the process get this far.
“We have to make sure we plan properly for the future,” Mayor John Gunter said. “For me, I am not in support of carving out a whole parcel.”
He offered a “common sense approach” — come up with a distance on Burnt Store Road and that is what the BURST is — where the commercial is going to be.
Staff was asked to bring back some actual depth measurements, so they have a better understanding of what is doable.
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