City of Cape Coral is working to revamp commercial parking regulations and enforcement
The city of Cape Coral is looking to regulate parking on city rights-of-way by commercial vehicles and to ramp up enforcement of those codes.
The question remains how.
Cape Coral City Council on Wednesday did not fully support a staff-prepared ordinance, saying the voluminous draft had too many exemptions.
“We have to be fair and consistent,” Mayor John Gunter said at the workshop meeting. “You have to lead by example. We have to apply it equally across the board.”
Councilmember Jennifer Nelson-Lastra agreed that consistency needed to be had.
“I think we need to lead by example and flesh that out a little bit more,” she said. “We could remove exclusions. If we are not leading by example and asking businesses to comply, it is not fair.”
City Attorney Aleksandr Boksner said the goal is to unify enforcement codes with parking and parking enforcement to be conducted by Cape Coral Police Department and parking enforcement specialists.
City Manager Michael Ilczyszyn said the city has a funded code enforcement section under the police department in the 2026 budget.
He added that he does expect some resident backlash.
“When you all pass this, and when I put those people in the field, you will be bombarded with people who get tickets because we will, for the first time, be enforcing all of these examples you just said,” he said. “When you deploy it, there will be push back from the community. I have a staff of people and sergeant in the budget to enforce this.”
The 34-page document includes pages one through 17 with strike-through language.
“We have created a citywide regulatory process,” Boksner said.
The language includes definitions for commercial lettering, commercial vehicle, park, stand, stop, and trailer.
“It’s all brand-new language. It is meant to address all commercial vehicles,” Boksner said.
Brand new language to the ordinance included the creation of enforcement penalties and towing. Boksner said code enforcement would be replaced with a parking enforcement specialist.
Multiple council members had problems with the exemptions portion of the draft ordinance.
Exemptions included unimproved or vacant property that must be zoned for commercial use and must be immediately adjacent to the business premises, a bona fide lease, and that parking be limited to only patrons of the adjacent business and only during hours of operation.
Councilmember Keith Long said he did not know if he could strike the exemptions.
Gunter said one thing to consider is the possibility of bringing back a permit process for some type of short-term parking.
“Maybe they have to apply for a permit and there is a listed criteria you have to meet to get the permit,” Gunter said.
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