Independent traffic study raises flags
To the editor:
I have formally warned the Cape Coral City Council and city staff that they are on the verge of locking in a permanent infrastructure disaster on Old Burnt Store Road based on flawed data. I provided them with the major flaws, omissions and improper use of the data proving the approved traffic study for the Gulf Gateway Resort (Seven Islands) contains severe methodological errors that misrepresent the required road improvements needed for the 7 islands. I have a signed and sealed engineering peer review of the Traffic Impact Study (TIS) that backs that up.
So far, no acknowledgment from the city that anything is out of order.
Right now, a federal and state stop-work order for unpermitted mangrove clearing is the only thing pausing this project. The moment that order lifts and the city issues the final right-of-way permits; the physical footprint of the resort is locked in forever. The urgency to expose this cannot be overstated-we are possibly only weeks away from the point of no return.
This is a story of a severe breakdown in municipal vetting, where glaring developer red flags and flawed infrastructure math are being ignored by City Hall, ultimately shifting massive costs onto local taxpayers.
Mind you the flaws in the traffic study are not my opinions they are the findings of an independent professional traffic engineer who stamped his findings: The independent review confirms that current traffic volumes legally mandate left-turn lanes at six separate proposed driveways, when the numbers are properly adjusted and applied many more road improvements will likely be required, yet city staff has rubber-stamped the site plan which will stick the taxpayer with the enormous bill.
Some of the flaws in the TIS include….
1. Omitted Seasonal Multipliers: Applied a flat 1.00 factor to September 2024 and October 2023 counts, bypassing required FDOT peak-season adjustments. The TIS did not apply the applicable 1.11 peak-season adjustment to the traffic counts. As a result, the base traffic volumes used in the study are understated by approximately 11 percent. Because these volumes are carried forward into multiple subsequent analyses, the omission affects the traffic volumes used throughout the TIS. The affected roadway, intersection, driveway, and turn-lane analyses should be reevaluated using appropriately adjusted peak-season traffic volumes.
2. Background Traffic Growth Rate: Applied a generic 2.0% background growth rate, ignoring the actual development velocity of the Northwest Cape corridor. A 2.0% rate is not supported by recent FDOT or county data, which shows considerably higher growth within the study area. The resulting change in background volumes would carry through and drastically affect the operational and turn-lane analyses. The city voted to approve this in 2026 yet relied on information from 2023 and 24 when accurate FDOT and other numbers from 2025 were available.
3. Aggressive Internal Capture and Pass-By Reductions: Applied a 40% pass-by discount to the commercial plaza to artificially erase trips from the road. The pass-by volumes should be reduced to a reasonable and supportable level (closer to 10%), and the resulting revised project traffic should be carried through the driveway, roadway, and turn-lane analyses.
4. Ignored Access Density: Concluded turn lanes are “not warranted” by applying improper guide lines and ignoring county and city requirements. They based the turn-lane analysis on the unadjusted, artificially suppressed traffic volumes noted above.
The city has approved the introduction of high-volume resort traffic without dedicated turn lanes on a single-lane directional roadway. This practically guarantees rear-end collisions and gridlock. Furthermore, allowing every turning vehicle to block the only travel lane poses an immediate threat to emergency response times for fire, police and EMT personal. Imagine this section of road when garbage trucks and mail trucks are stopping at every driveway. It creates complete gridlock and a very dangerous situation. I have notified the city several times of the dangers this creates and they continue to ignore everything.
Beyond the engineer’s mathematical findings, a basic physical inspection of the site reveals a catastrophic safety hazard. The TIS also ignored the side friction of the 40+ existing residential driveways directly across this two-lane divided roadway treating the northbound side of Old Burnt Store road as though it was a free-flowing roadway.
The Taxpayer Bailout (The CDD Trap): The developer is dumping nearly 8,000 daily trips onto a single-lane divided road shared with over 40 existing residential driveways. By keeping the turn lanes off the approved site plan, the developer kept those costs out of their infrastructure budget. When the road inevitably gridlocks and traps emergency vehicles, the city will likely be forced to spend tens of millions of taxpayer dollars to fix it — potentially requiring eminent domain to seize residents’ front yards.
Currently the city has determined that the intersections of Embers and Old Burnt Store and Tropicana and Old Burnt Store need roundabouts. They concluded that from a study that was completed before they approved the 7 Islands sale and the CDD So, the city was well aware of the high traffic volumes in this area yet they stood by the flawed numbers in the 7-island traffic study that claimed that no turn lanes or road improvements were needed. Now guess who will pay for it? You the taxpayer will. Millions that the Forest development should have paid for now stuck on us the tax payer and also looking like contributing to the crazy high UEP assessments in the Northwest Cape.
This is so outrageous because they were aware of this and approved everything anyway letting Forrest off the hook. This stick- the-taxpayer-with-everything at 7 Islands crap needs to stop and can be stopped as the city has not issued the permits for the road construction yet and can also easily claim Forrest provided them faulty information in the TIS.
I have spent 40 years in and around the construction industry. I know what happens when the math on paper fails to reflect the physical reality of the street. This is the worst I have ever seen.
This is a big story, the entire 7 island fiasco is a big story from the failed due diligence of the city, to the poor reputation and massive liens of the developer, the environmental impact and violations, the flawed traffic study, the lack of USCOE permits, endless delays, the list goes on and on and City Council continues to ignore it all.
Emile J. LeDonne
Cape Coral