Don’t use Four Freedoms Park to sweeten land sale to developers
To the editor:
I am ashamed of the mayor and Cape Coral City Council for wanting to sell Four Freedoms Park on Bimini Basin to developers in order to sweeten the deal on 22 acres the city bought adjacent to the park. The Cape Coral Community Redevelopment Agency also approved this sale.
They say that they just want to “move” the park to a different location, but make no mistake, they want to basically sell it to developers. This park has about 600 linear feet of waterfront on Bimini Basin, a beach, fishing areas, a preschool and a children’s playground that was installed only three years ago.
The 22 acres the city bought had homes, condos and apartment buildings on it that the city razed and is now vacant land. The total cost of the land and the razing is about $45 million. There are about six buildings right smack in the middle of this land that the city was not able to buy and probably puts a little kink in their plans. Maybe they plan on using eminent domain to take them. In their infinite wisdom, I hope the city is able to sell this land to developers for much more than the $45 million already spent. I disagree with the city and the CRA for even taking on a project such as this. Let the developers do their own developing. The city should just control what is proposed in the way of permits.
In summary, I strongly object to the city selling Four Freedoms Park. The mayor and the city council should all be voted out of office when their terms expire, and the CRA should be disbanded for being ineffective.
Ken Kendrick
Cape Coral