Hudson Creek, a mixed-use planned unit development, was unanimously approved by Cape Coral City Council during a public hearing Thursday. The 1,732-acre development is in northwest Cape Coral, east of Burnt Store Road and north of Jacaranda Parkway.
The project will include a maximum of 3,500 dwelling units, of which 2,500 would be single-family homes. Along with residential development, the project will include 425,000 square feet of retail and restaurant uses, 500 rooms of hotel space and 150,000 square feet of office uses.
There also is a maximum of an 800-bed assisted-living facility and a 3,000-student university. However, there is no discussion between the city and colleges or universities that are interested in the site yet. The proposed schedule of uses acts as a placeholder for what is permitted and can possibly be put on the site.
Historically, portions of the site have been in Cape Coral for several years, while other parcels were annexed into Cape Coral throughout the years.
The entire site is undeveloped, with no existing roadway access and no utilities available.
A central spine road will run through the development, with access proposed from Burnt Store Road, Wilmington Parkway, Jacaranda Parkway and Chiquita Boulevard. The neighborhood roads will have sidewalks on both sides, with the spine road having bike lanes on both sides as well.
“What we want to achieve with this PUD is to make sure that walkers, bicyclists and cars can also be accommodated on these roadways within the Hudson Creek development,” said Chad Boyko, principal planner for Cape Coral.
The project will produce 3,855 morning and 5,864 afternoon peak hour trips.
“There was a traffic study that was conducted when this project was submitted,” Boyko said. “Even though those trips are fairly substantial, it does cover a large area of land, so it’s not like they’re condensed into a small area.”
Despite the peak hour trips, the project was not shown to have any major impacts to the roadway system, Boyko said. He attributes this to the project being spread out among a substantial amount of acreage and there being no commercial development to the north of Burnt Store Road due to lack of utilities.
“There are Charlotte County lines that are nearby to the site, but those were primarily designed and installed for the Tranquility Lakes RV Resort, and there really is sort of limited capacity within those lines in order for any other development other than Tranquility Lakes to be able to use,” Boyko said. “Whatever capacity is within those lines is far deficient for what Hudson Creek would require for their development.”
Because of the lack of utilities, the applicant, GA-Pinnacle Cape Coral LLC, proposed an off-site utility agreement for the project.
Council approved the off-site utility agreement during the second part of Thursday’s hearing, as approval of the agreement is required prior to any development on the site.
The developer will be responsible for extending large diameter wastewater force mains and potable water transmission mains. This is expected to become a backbone utility system to serve the Burnt Store Road commercial corridor and future utility extension project areas as envisioned in the 2022 Utilities Master Plan, according to the resolution.
Hudson Creek is expected to provide a commercial need to residents, as Cape Coral has a documented need for both commercial and multifamily housing based on studies over the past decade.
City staff had 37 conditions the developer agreed to when moving forward with the project including utilities, street standards and density. A timeline for the development has yet to be determined, with utility access driving the timeframe for the project.
