Cape Coral Bike Ped project celebrated at March 1 ribbon cutting

Updated 3/1/14
Kudos again to Bike-Ped Cape Coral and the City of Cape Coral on the successful completion of the first two routes of the 90-mile bike route system for the Cape, an important milestone in making Lee County a more bikeable/walkable community!  

Check out the WINK News story from the event, with great interviews with City Manager John Szerlag and Mayor Sawicki about the spirit of volunteerism and partnerships between CCBP and City staff.

Also see my photo album from the event, posted on BikeWalkLee's Facebook page.

Also thanks to CCBP's Carolyn Conant and Persides Zambrano (City of Cape Coral, Public Works) who gave an excellent presentation to the Joint Collier/Lee MPO bike/ped committees on Tuesday and generated lots of excitement about how other communities could follow the Cape's lead.  (report by Darla Letourneau)

News-Press, Feb. 27, 2014:  Cape Coral Bike Ped Project a Success

Carolyn Conant’s bike dream is becoming a reality in Cape Coral.

Cape Coral Bike Ped has come far enough along that there will be a ribbon cutting and informal bike ride Saturday to celebrate the first two interconnected bike routes to be completed — the Team Aubuchon (Team A) and the Chamber of Commerce of Cape Coral (CCCC) routes.

“The sponsorship is something unique,” Conant pointed out. “It’s an innovative concept.”

The concept by year’s end will result in seven interconnected routes spanning 90 miles.

Signage will begin to be placed on the Physicians’ Primary Care (PPC) route in March. When completed in July, the PPC and CCCC routes will create a nearly 50-mile-long circular route around the perimeter of the city.

 

On Saturday, Mayor Marni Sawicki, City Manager John Szerlag, Dr. Mary Yankaskas from Physicians’ Primary Care, Gary Aubuchon from Team Aubuchon and Annette Carrasquillo from the Chamber will cut the ribbon on the bike route pathway, then cyclists are welcome to ride informally together on a 3-mile ride down Surfside, a 7-mile ride on Surfside (Chamber route) onto Beach & Oasis (Team Aubuchon route), or a 15-mile round trip on the Chamber and Team Aubuchon routes to Cape Harbour and back.

“This is a wonderful partnership with the city,” said Conant, noting the economic impact such a project can bring by attracting bicyclists and ecotourists to the area.

The routes are being marked with two types of distinctive signage. The first is the green-and-white traffic control signage, which is based on Florida’s new bike signage. It tells cyclists which route they are on, where to turn to stay on a route or go onto another route. In addition, other safety and information signage is being placed along the routes.

The blue-and-white “Adopt A Route” signs name the seven sponsored routes and the small sign below lists the individual sponsor for a particular sign. These are the signs used to raise the funds for these routes, but also tell the rider which route they are on. So, for instance, Physicians’ Primary Care sponsored a route and their physicians are sponsoring the individual signs on their route.

Conant is happy about how things have come together and continue to take shape.

 “It’s here. It’s not a dream. It’s a reality,” she said proudly.

For information about Cape Coral Bike-Ped:

For information about Cape Coral Bike-Ped:

Website: www.capecoralbikeped.org

Phone: Carolyn Conant, 239-851-9737

If you go

Meet at the beginning of the Physicians’ Primary Care Route on the southwest corner of Surfside and Veterans Parkway, across from the Shops at Surfside Shopping Center.
Arrive no later than 7:45 a.m. Saturday for the 8 a.m. ribbon-cutting ceremony.
See “Ride with GPS” maps if you are interested in a casual ride with others after the ribbon-cutting ceremony:
• 3-mile ride http://ridewithgps.com/routes/4030910
• 7-mile ride http://ridewithgps.com/routes/4030899
• 13-mile http://ridewithgps.com/routes/4032590

Mixed-use presentation may lead to Lee County projects

 Thanks to everyone involved in organizing Friday's excellent mixed use project seminar featuring the successful Sarasota Citrus Square project...and to everyone who attended.  It was informative and inspiring.

This recent, Feb. 21^st,  Mixed-Use Development seminar featured a duo of speakers - architect, Chris Gallagher, and developer, Mark Pierce, the team behind the successful infill Citrus Square project in Sarasota.  The event was sold out and brought together over 100  participants, including 5 elected officials, top level staff from around the county, developers, realtors, bankers, planners, and other community leaders.

Citrus Square is a walkable, downtown, infill development, built in an older and declining neighborhood – a neighborhood considered too dangerous to travel to for evening restaurant dining.  This project features beautiful condominium living above ground-level shops and restaurants, outdoor cafes, green spaces and an open plaza. Artfully incorporated green, energy efficient features with careful, knowledge-based site design and alternative stormwater management enhance this desirable living experience. 

 Shops and residences are fronted by a tree-lined street with wide sidewalks, curbside parking and two transit stops. Citrus Square, while offering its residents and patrons the healthy ease of an active, connected, multimodal lifestyle, has also sowed the seeds of entire neighborhood revival.

 Thanks to the Fort Myers team - Mayor Henderson for his leadership in hosting this event and Randy Krise (Krise Commercial Real Estate) for helping to bring it all together. We also thank Ann Pierce (BikeWalkLee steering group member) for initiating the event and making a great presentation on opportunities for mixed use and walkable communities in Fort Myers and Lee County – opportunities for local developers and lenders in the area’s many older urban neighborhoods.  

And a special thanks to all the event sponsors that made this presentation possible, including the newest Pinchers Crab Shack, itself an excellent reuse & remodel project near downtown Fort Myers. We hope this is the first in a series of seminars in learning about successful incremental, mixed use, infill and redevelopment projects of all sizes, from a single building rehab or new build, to larger planned communities, all essential components of area-wide revitalization.  

Report by Darla Letourneau

Week of Feb. 24th: Upcoming running/walking/biking events

Check our blog every Monday morning for upcoming running/walking/biking events. If you haven't already signed up for the March 16th Royal Palm Classic organized by the Caloosa Riders, now is the time.  It's going to be a great ride and starts from the Fort Myers Brewing Company this year!

2014 Tour de Cape run

Running/walking      

·     

·        Sunday, March 2: Hooters Half Marathon, Fort Myers. 7 a.m. 

·        Saturday, March 29: Scope for Hope 5K, Hammond Stadium, Fort Myers. 

2014 Tour de Cape bike ride

Cycling and other events:

·        

·     Sunday, March 16: Royal Palm Classic, organized by the Caloosa Riders.

·        Saturday, March 29: Walk, Wheel, and Wobble for Ataxia, Florida Gulf Coast University. 10-, 30- and 62-mile rides, 5K run 

·        Sunday, April 13: Immokalee Ride for Literacy, 15-, 30- and 62-mile rides 
      Sunday, April 13: Everglades Ride, Everglades City, sponsored by Naples Pathways Coalition and River of Grass Greenway.

Commissioner Mann and citizens speak out against reduction in impact fees

Updated 3/1/14
On Feb. 11th, the BoCC reviewed the first year experience with its 80% reduction of impact fees and decided to continue the reduction, in spite of the overwhelming evidence that it wasn't needed and that the significant loss of revenues was having a negative impact on the county's budget.  Only Commissioner Mann opposed the impact fee reduction and below is his letter to the editor clearly stating why.  Included below are a series of graphs and tables presented to the Commissioners to support the request to discontinue the impact fee reduction.  Over twenty citizens representing a broad array of community, environmental, and public interest groups (including Lee Public Voice and BikeWalkLee )spoke against continuing the reduction at the Board's morning meeting. (Note: no public comment was allowed at the BoCC's workshop discussing the first year review of impact fee reduction ordinance.)  

Added below is the Naples Daily News 2/25 column by editorial writer Brent Batten that compares Collier and Lee Counties' experiences and clearly demonstrates the lack of any relationship between permit levels and impact fees, and highlights the costs to the community of the loss of these revenues.
Links to the many letters to editor and additional guest opinions on the topic are included below.


 BikeWalkLee has steadfastly opposed the suspension or significant reduction in impact fees over the past four years, opposed the Board's 80% reduction in impact fees in March 2013, and last week urged the County Commissioners to end the reduction. As stated in BikeWalkLee's 2014 priorities, "BikeWalkLee advocates for the review and reinstatement of funding for infrastructure through impact and/or mobility fees with the goal of ensuring that growth pays for growth and that necessary and desirable infrastructure and amenities are in place when newcomers are ready to take advantage of it.  Any other approach unfairly shifts the cost to current taxpayers." We urge the county commission to "plan a transition pathway to enact mobility fees as a replacement for road impact fees, to encourage multi-modal transportation options and development in-fill and economic renewal." 


Commissioner Mann's Letter to Editor (published 2/23/14 in News-Press)
Missed chance to pay for

In the decade that ended 2008, Lee County’s population grew by about 100,000 people. That’s the equivalent of creating a brand-new, good-sized city. Schools (elementary, middle, and a high), a jail and sheriff’s office, parks (at least four), fire stations, emergency ambulance service, about 100 miles of roads, were just some of the amenities required to provide for a minimum standard quality of life for that new “city.”

Somebody had to pay that approximately $100 million.

During that time, we asked the new people moving here to pay part of the cost of the impact they were causing, which they did, through an impact fee charged on the cost of their permit fee for their new home. Otherwise, our local citizens would have paid that cost, almost certainly through an increase in their own taxes.

This is a great system and a fair system to deal with the cost of growth, which has worked well all over Florida for about 20 years.

However, the Lee County commission, over my lone objection, voted to reduce that fee by 80 percent, presumably to spur growth and profits for the construction industry, which clearly had suffered through the recent recession.

It was argued, however, that virtually every local and national study indicated clearly that the recession was over: Building permits were again moving through the courthouse, financing was again available to qualified buyers, the nightmare of foreclosures was coming to an end, and demand for new housing was strong and growing. Permits are flying off the shelves in all Southwest Florida coastal counties, whether or not they have high impact fees, low impact fees or no impact fees.

It is impossible to show a relationship between impact fees and the number of building permits being issued. In fact, it needs to be pointed out that when Lee County’s impact fees were at their very highest, back in 2007-08 (they’ve been lowered since) we issued more permits per month than any time in the county history.

Houses are built according to an ancient unbreakable law, which is called supply and demand, not the amount of impact fees.

 This year, we will lose over $15 million badly needed, which could have been used for the needed schools and critical amenities. My four colleagues have just missed an opportunity to reinstate the fees for this year. We will now be losing well over $33 million over the two-year period, which would have done wonders for our budget needs.

And in order to balance our budget this year we will almost certainly be called upon to utilize dollars previously committed to environmental programs that helped to protect and enhance our quality of life. How unnecessarily sad. I am pleased that The News-Press agreed with my analysis of the situation.   Frank Mann, Lee County commissioner, District 5

Click here to read the other three letters to the editor (published 2/23) in opposition to the Board's action.

Read Naples Daily News editorial write Brent Batten's 2/25/14 column:  Fee reduction will have an impact in Lee County
His column clearly demonstrates the point we made last week at the BoCC meeting--comparing Lee and Collier Counties experience with permit levels and impact fee rates shows zero relationship between the two...and as the column points out, the loss of revenues has serious consequences for the community:  "There is a cost to be paid in diminished quality of life for everyone."

Additional Citizen Voices:
 Phil Buchanan (Pine Island community leader)'s Op Ed in 2/27/14 News Press:  "Developers receive gift while residents are being rumpled"  
And published in Pine Island Eagle. 

Phil Buchanan's Open letter to the Lee County Commissioners, printed in Pine Island Eagle, Feb. 25, 2014

Two more citizens speak out in opposition to the Board's action in Feb. 26th News-Press letters to the editor. 
Guest Opinion by Elliot Hastings (Bonita Springs resident): "Lee County is on fast pace to equal the east coast" (2/28/140

 Another citizen letter to editor (3/1/14)

Here's the Reality:
Below are a series of graphs and tables presented to the Commissioners last week demonstrating that there was no relationship between impact fees and permits issued, and that the loss in revenues was 4 times greater than estimated, with a total of $33 M to be lost as a result of their decision to cut impact fees by 80% for 2 years.

BikeWalkLee Previous Reports:

BikeWalkLee's 1/15/13 background paper: Why suspending impact fees is a bad idea

Links to BikeWalkLee previous letters in opposition to the proposal:

·        April 2012

·        June 2011

Note that 2/24/14 StreetsblogUSA picked up BikeWalkLee's 2/23/14 blog post on impact fees: "Elsewhere on the Network today: BikeWalkLee explains why drastically reducing impact fees for new, sprawling growth will haunt the Fort Myers, Florida, region."