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To the editor:
First off, kudos to the five newly elected city council members for following through with their promise to get rid of the stipend that almost doubled the salary of the previous board and mayor. The stipend was not voted on by the citizens of Cape Coral.
Now in November 2026, we citizens need to vote to get rid of the last two council members and the mayor from the previous board. That board pushed the redevelopment of Jaycee Park despite the objections of thousands of local voters to leave the park alone. Particularly irritating was the District 1 councilman pushing the redevelopment of his area park and going against the wishes of his District 1 voters. He is one of the two board members up for re-election in November 2026.
The previous board awarded the Jaycee Park contract in 2024 and made sure all the beautiful Australian Pines were cut down right before the election last November. The park is bare of trees now and sealed off with a six-foot fence. That previous board knew they were going to lose in November. This redevelopment project was estimated to cost $12 million in October 2023 when the previous board decided they wanted to do this project. Only one board member cast the lone dissenting vote. The citizens did not vote for this project. The project cost is now about $18 million and will turn a once beautiful park into, guess what, a park!! Was there no economic analysis performed by the city to justify this project?
The Yacht Club redevelopment is another fiasco in the making by the previous board. The citizens voted in 2018 for a $60 million GO bond to create new parks and improve older parks. The Yacht Club area was earmarked for about $13 million of that $60 million. Since then, this project was stripped out of the GO bond and last week's Breeze reported that this project is now estimated to cost an astounding $120 to $150 million! The city blames Hurricane Ian for the expanded costs, but their insurance company estimated the damage to the Yacht Club building to be only $25,000. They said the city did not maintain the building. The city then razed the Yacht Club building and senior center for about $1 million, and now it is vacant land.
The new city council should call a time out and re-evaluate these ever-increasing costs. They need to down-size their plans and just get back to the basics of providing open space and recreation for its citizens. The area needs to get the fire-destroyed Boathouse back in business, add a second restaurant and rebuild the pier, which was destroyed by Ian. The new community center, resort-style pools and huge four-story parking garage were all added "features" that the previous board wanted, with probably some encouragement by developers.
Another project the city embarked on last year was buying up most of four city blocks of homes and apartment buildings just northeast of Bimini Basin for about $40 million. They are now in the process of razing all those buildings at a cost of $1 million in order to entice developers to buy this land and create, no doubt, a highly- dense project. Let's hope the city sells this land and gets our $41 million back, but I disagree with the concept of the city doing this type of buying and razing properties for the benefit of developers. They should be reining in developers.
The board seems to favor dense developments in all four quadrants of the city. The city is over developed as it is and traffic is now a major problem and soon potable water for the city will become a major problem too. The maximum build-out of Cape Coral was once estimated at about 220,000 citizens. I recently heard that maximum is now over 300,000 people. The old laid-back Florida of just 10 years ago is now gone in Cape Coral, taken over by greedy developers who come in and build the largest, densest project they can, make their money and move on to the next one.
The one recent bright spot in Cape Coral was the city buying the defunct golf course between Palm Tree and Country Club Boulevards for $10.4 million in October 2024. Let's hope the new board keeps it as open space parkland for recreation for its citizens.
Ken Kendrick
Citizen of Cape Coral