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Jaycee Park to close Tuesday in advance of renovations

By MEGHAN BRADBURY - | Oct 21, 2024

Jaycee Park will close to the public Tuesday as a $16-18 million renovation of the riverfront park gets under way.

Re-opening not anticipated until late next year.

A fence will be installed so site preparations can commence, city officials said.

The park at the end of Beach Parkway is expected to remain closed until the fall of 2025, the target for substantial completion within 15 months.

“These significant upgrades will transform Jaycee Park, offering enhanced recreational facilities and new amenities for the community,” the city said in a release issued last Tuesday.

“The City appreciates the community’s patience while the park is closed and looks forward to unveiling the improved Jaycee Park in Fall 2025, barring unforeseen delays. Periodic updates on the project’s progress will be shared on the City’s website and through official communication channels.”

There will be periodic updates on the city’s website, www.capecoral.gov, regarding the progress, city officials said.

Anne Berchtold, of Save Jaycee Park, said many members will be at the park Tuesday.

“The fence goes up tomorrow, but that does not mean that destruction starts tomorrow,” she said.

The group is not happy with the city’s renovation plan and has worked for months to stop it, including organizing a petition drive that garnered nearly 8,000 signatures. Due to tight time constraints, the number fell short of the 22,000 needed to place the issue on the November ballot as a citizen initiative.

The group continues to maintain its community outreach by talking to people and sharing the plan of the council.

Berchtold said some of the people they encounter at the park are unaware of the pending renovations, which will include removal of the Australian pines along the riverfront and the installation of a number of new amenities.

“They express to us how sad they are,” she said. “We will continue the outreach to people. To make them aware of what is possibly going to happen is vital.”

Berchtold said with the park closing, they will no longer be able to walk the park, but rather the roads bordering the park. She shared concern about the groups – particularly the mental health groups that meet at the park – where they are going to go.

“There is no effort by the City Council to find other venues for the group of veterans that meet down there on a regular basis,” Berchtold said, adding there’s no effort for the AA groups as well. “The council isn’t interested in the mental health well-being of the community.”

Cape Coral City Council entered into a public-private partnership in August for construction as well as for the management of food and drink services, one of the new amenities.

Cape Coral City Council approved the Comprehensive Agreement between the city and Fortress Secured, LLC, as well as the Concessionaire’s Agreement between the city and The Reef.

The Jaycee Park improvements address several deficiencies, city officials said. Plans call for the replanting native trees, active facilities, as well as upgrading existing playgrounds and bathrooms, in addition to adding what the city says younger residents want — open mic night and a cafe.

The proposed enhancements reflect recommendations in the parks master plan and the ULI report — a bandshell, food truck court, inclusive playground and splash pad, covered pavilions and boardwalk, the cafe, and the removal of the pines, which are a designated invasive species.

The Reef will sell alcohol. There will be an established “wet zone” around the perimeter of the concession stand. The remainder of the park will be an alcohol-free dry zone, which could change during special events with the city manager’s approval.

Berchtold said she suspects that this may be true – the city being bent on taking the Australian pines down before Election Day. She said they are so heartbroken that so much time and effort has been made on what she said is destroying a community park with food trucks and glasses of wine – an exceptionally used community park – and turning it into what she believes will be a financial fiasco.

With this said, Berchtold said they feel in the “global perspective” they have scored a massive victory – as “so many wonderful candidates that were outraged, can make a difference and do better than this.”

“If the park is lost – I hope it is not – we still have scored a victory in that those people will be evicted from the City Council,” she said, as majority of City Council seats will be decided Nov. 5.

Berchtold said hopes a reconfigured council may take a pause and see what they can do.

“If not change what is going to happen to Jaycee Park, at least take a pause to see what they can do to save what remains,” she said.