Burnt Store Town Hall scheduled
Besides some land use and zoning already built in, Burnt Store Road is pretty much a blank canvas, with a myriad of ways it can be developed for the future.
On Saturday, July 30, at 10 a.m. the City of Cape Coral and the Northwest Neighborhood Association will host a town hall meeting on the Land Use and Zoning for Burnt Store Road at the Northwest Regional Library, 519 Chiquita Blvd.
Representatives from the city will discuss plans to transform Burnt Store Road into a commercial corridor, with the public given the opportunity to provide input.
You do not have to be a member of the NWNA to attend, as this town hall meeting is open to the public.
“It’s a chance for the city to reach out to the community. Burnt Store Road is the next corridor in regards to growth in the area,” said Cape Coral City Councilmember Keith Long, whose District 6 includes Burnt Store Road. “It’s vacant so things are going to head that way for development.”
Long said the city wants to get ahead of that and create the appropriate land use and zoning to restrict and allow certain uses and facilitate where corridor development will go.
This town hall also will include updates from the NWNA on notable happenings in northwest Cape Coral.
John Bashaw, president of the NWNA, said he is looking forward to the meeting and the opportunity for residents to weigh in.
“It’s the last commercial corridor set for development in Cape Coral. The city has done a good job on the zoning and overlay and land use already. I’m happy I am not looking at a blank sheet of paper. I’m glad they have done some work,” Bashaw said. “Now, we have a palette of some of the work and we’ll have residents who will weigh in and talk about what businesses we’d like to see.”
Among the items that will not be discussed is the future expansion of Burnt Store Road to the Charlotte County line or the utilities expansion project coming there in the future.
What neither Long nor Bashaw want to see is a seven-mile stretch of storage facilities, dollar stores and gas stations. The public will let them know what they want.
“It’s a great opportunity for the city, the residents and developers to collaborate to make the Burnt Store corridor very special,” Bashaw said.
To reach CHUCK BALLARO, please email news@breezenewspapers.com