Allison Chiger moved to Cape Coral from Miami after living there for over 20 years to escape the hustle and bustle of large metropolitan areas.
Moving to Cape Coral 15 years ago, eager to find a community defined by a slow pace of progression and a “small-town sentiment,” she was happy with her decision after knowing the area well as a Florida Gulf Coast University alumna.
As time progressed, however, Chiger became perturbed by the amount of development she sees daily throughout the community, specifically development encroaching on northwest and northeast Cape Coral.
After hearing about a new large-scale project planning to break ground in Northwest Cape Coral, she said she feels like no matter how hard she tries, the development seems to follow her.
“That’s disappointing to me, because I would come to this area growing up because it was a small-town feel, but yet, Fort Myers was a big city, similar to how Cape Coral is [now]. Cape Coral is a big city with a small-town feel, but unfortunately, with all this rapid growth, we are losing that charm, and it breaks my heart—I wanted to get away from that, and it is following me.”Allison Chiger
The Seven Islands development, a large-scale approximately 48-acre project—dating back to 2015—is planning to break ground in northwest Cape Coral on the east side of the Spreader Canal.
The current plans show nearly 1,000 residential units—including apartments, condominiums, single-family and multi-family — a 10-story Marriott-branded hotel with 240 rooms, more than 16,000 square feet of meeting rooms and spaces, commercial and retail spaces, fish houses, waterfront restaurants, a tiki bar, a public marina with boat slips, and a lagoon resort.
Plans also include a more than 16,000-square-foot community hub boasting a dog park, a splash pad, sidewalks, a golf cart bridge to connect the hub to the other islands, a kayak launch, an amphitheater, and a “hip food truck park.”
Kevin Black, current president of the Northwest Cape Coral Neighborhood Association, was at the Cape Coral City Council meeting on Jan. 21, where the development agreement between the city and Gulf Gateway Resort and Marina was passed unanimously.
“I believe Gulf Gateway and Marina will be a hub in the northwest,” Black said. “Something that the members have been looking for for a long time—restaurants, shops, a place to meet.”
This is what Dena Weissinger, a resident of northwest Cape Coral for 14 years, said she is looking forward to the most about the project.
“I think it’s a good thing — progress,” Weissinger said. “It gives people that are coming more opportunities instead of going to the south cape forever.”
Emil Ledon was at the meeting and spoke about multiple concerns, as he lives right across from the project.
“I think the plan is way too large. I think Old Burnt Store Road is too narrow to handle the car traffic, and I just think it’s a bad plan.”Emil Ledon
Ledon also added that, as a builder for his whole life, he said this is a “massive overbuild” and, ”I’m stunned that it got this far.”
Council member Joe Kilraine said that new infrastructure will be installed to accommodate the existing infrastructure.
“The concerns that I heard tonight were based on the current conditions,” Kilraine said. “I would ask those who are worried about the traffic and at the density up there to look at the project itself in the detail and some of the infrastructure that’s going to go in with it.”
Chiger’s main concern, however, is the environmental impact surrounding the area's fragile ecosystems.
“It’s going to affect not just the human population, but the animal population—they don’t have a voice like we do,” Chiger said. “Tortoises, turtles, birds, coyotes —we are taking so much land away from them. So just because there’s an empty plot of land doesn’t necessarily mean we need to build on it.”
Sam Bauer, Forest Development’s Senior Vice President of Development, said they are taking extra steps to ensure the fragile ecosystems encompassing the site are not compromised.
“In respect to the environmental points that were raised, we’ve conducted numerous and extensive on-land and in-water studies related to our intended development,” Baur said. “We developed our plan to dramatically reduce the impact on the mangroves and maintain wildlife habitat, not because it was demanded of us, but because we knew it was the right thing to do.”
Weissinger said that development is an unescapable reality of living anywhere around the world: “You’re not going to stop it. You cannot like it, but it’s just the way it is.”
Chiger echoed this sentiment but said the resources and capital utilized for this project could fund other facilities she said the city’s residents need.
“You’re not taking into consideration the population growth in the sense of building more schools, hospitals, and other facilities — one hospital for a population larger than Fort Myers; that’s completely unfair. No wonder Cape Coral is busting at the seams.”Allison Chiger
Currently, there is no timeframe for when the project will break ground. However, the northernmost island is fenced off with chain-link fencing. As for the anticipated duration for construction, the consensus is that it will take more than a decade to complete; however, the developer said it may be completed sooner than expected.
For more information on the project and plans, visit Gulf Gateway Resort and Marina Village, Northwest Cape Seven Islands, Northwest Cape Coral Neighborhood Association, and the Greater Pine Island Civic Association.
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