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Engineering report will focus on blight
In a move to
replace a missing engineering report, Cape Coral's
Community Redevelopment Agency could double the area's
size.
The redevelopment agency's board voted 4-0 Tuesday, with
board members John Jacobsen and Carolyn Conant absent,
to hire a consultant to update the first blight study
that was conducted in 1972.
Others were conducted and concluded there was a need for
drainage improvement, curbs, sidewalks and parking.
There was also a
need for sewers and the area had a defective or
inadequate street layout, the studies found.
An updated engineering report and blight study is needed
to better document the blighted area, said Suzanne
Kuehn, the redevelopment agency's executive director.
"The blight study
would also include areas in the original study that for
one reason or another were not included when the CRA was
formed," Kuehn said.
Cape Coral City Council adopted the first Redevelopment
Area Plan in 1987. Until now, improvements have been to
streetscaping, and only a couple projects such as the
newly opened Hampton Inn & Suites hotel have opened.
But multimillion dollar plans from serious developers
who have assembled land to build on are closer than ever
to reality. Investors and property owners pay daily
calls to the redevelopment agency's office.
The present
442-acre, redevelopment area's boundaries extend from
Tudor Drive east along both sides of Cape Coral Parkway
almost to Cape Coral bridge. The boundary also juts
north along Del Prado Boulevard to Southeast 44th
Street.
Plans call for Real Estate Research Consultants to
undertake the $38,000 study in about two months, Kuehn
said.
In order to be
qualify as a redevelopment area, the state requires a
geographic area to be declared blighted. The area must
maintain engineering reports to prove its sewer, water
electrical supply and streets are below standards, or
blighted.
"I need the engineering report to be put in the record,"
Kuehn said. "The study will cover the entire area
studied in the first blight study, including areas for
whatever reason not included in the redevelopment area
designation."
The additional areas to be included in the blight study
include but are not limited to the area below a southern
redevelopment agency line at Miramar Street that
includes Vendome Court, Venetian Court and Viking Court,
Vincennes Street west to Coronado Parkway.
"The V streets are
where property owners have come into the office from to
ask about joining the CRA," said Lisa Pletincks, the
redevelopment areas marketing manager.
Other areas that will come under the updated
redevelopment blight study include the area to the west
of Bimini Basin on the south and north of Cape Coral
Parkway, to the west of Tudor Drive.
