Cape Coral City Council denied a privately initiated future land-use amendment at the northeast corner of Del Prado Boulevard and De Navarra Parkway. The proposed change for the site, 3561 De Navarra Parkway, was from a future land use of mixed-use to multifamily residential.
A motion to approve the land-use change with the revised site plan failed in a 4-3 vote.
Applicant and property owner David Fahmie asked for an extension of the item July 26, when it was originally scheduled to be voted on by Council.
Since then, the original proposal of 25 acres within the 50-acre site at 402 units with six commercial outparcels was changed to request a land-use change on just 19 acres within the 50-acre site consisting of 402 units with at least seven commercial outparcels.
The purpose of the redesign was to allow for more commercial use on the site, in an attempt to ease concerns of potential loss of Cape Coral’s commercial land.
“I think it’s important for you to understand that the owner in the last five years has made substantial efforts to market this property as a commercial power center, which is essentially what the staff report is arguing it should be,” said land-use attorney Richard Akin, who represented Fahmie. “Despite the substantial efforts that the owner has made to that end, it has been unsuccessful for a number of reasons.”
Akin said interest sparked once the retail community of buyers heard the apartment project was going to be under contract.
“The reality is, we believe that by allowing this amendment, what it’s going to do is actually get the commercial out of the ground instead of it just being something that could hypothetically be there one day. It’s actually going to get built as part of this plan,” he said.
Michael Price, director of the land brokerage division for LQ Commercial, also represents Fahmie and has been actively marketing the site for sale since 2018.
“We spent the last five years aggressively marketing this property nationally, trying to gain interest from qualified commercial developers,” Price said. “Over the last five years of outreach and in-depth discussions with developers, we’ve had zero interest in this portion of the property with regard to building a retail center.”
While staff found that either land-use classification would be appropriate considering the size of the site, the heavily residential surrounding area coupled with the city’s continuous efforts to grow and maintain its commercial base drove staff to recommend denial.
“The long-term best interest for this site is to retain that mixed-use land use in order to make sure that you do have a base of commercial development that is available on that site, not only for job opportunities, but also for services to be provided to a pretty large residential basis out there in the northeast [part of the city],” Cape Coral Principal Planner Chad Boyko said.
In June, the Cape Coral Planning and Zoning Commission recommended approval of the future land-use amendment in a 4-1 vote.
The consensus from the commission was the mixed-use corridor had not seen development in years, while still understanding the city’s desire to preserve and expand commercial land in the city.
Despite the site remaining vacant for many years, Mayor John Gunter still opposed the request, even with the revised changes.
“Commercial property is very limited,” Gunter said. “I won’t be supporting it only because it’s going to be taking so much commercial property that is in a great location that may not be ready now, but we only have so much commercial property here in our city.”
