Orchid Boulevard wrong place to spend $1 million on a sidewalk
To the editor:
Cape Coral taxpayers deserve a better explanation before the city spends $1 million installing sidewalks on Orchid Boulevard. The stated rationale is “Safe Routes to School.” But according to Lee County School District, there are only four students total living in the relevant area enrolled at Cape Elementary.
Before the City spends this kind of money, taxpayers should be told whether any of those four students actually walk to Cape Elementary. That matters because Orchid Boulevard already has bike lanes that pedestrians commonly use, the street is not a high-traffic commercial corridor, and there are no crosswalks at Orchid Boulevard or Southeast 44th Street across busy Del Prado Boulevard. A child walking to Cape Elementary would need to go out of the way to cross safely at another location, making the “safe route” rationale far less persuasive.
The city has said Orchid Boulevard is a “major collector road” and that this sidewalk would complete a missing link between existing sidewalks. Maybe that is technically true on a planning map. But policy labels should not substitute for common sense. This is a short residential stretch with limited pedestrian demand, existing bike lanes, and very few school-age children.
There are also real impacts on property owners and residents. The planned sidewalk appears to require driveway modifications, swale regrading, and placement close enough to existing driveways that ordinary parking may become more difficult without blocking the sidewalk.
At a time when Cape Coral’s budget has increased sharply in recent years and property-tax reductions are being discussed statewide, the city should be looking harder at whether every project is truly necessary. “The money was programmed” or “it completes a link” is not enough.
Cape Coral should pause this project, disclose the traffic counts, disclose the actual student-walking data, and explain why Orchid Boulevard is a higher priority than other needs — or why the money should be spent at all. Taxpayers deserve sidewalks where they are genuinely needed, not expensive projects justified by thin assumptions.
Robert J. Lauson
Cape Coral property owner and former Orchid Boulevard resident