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CAPE CORAL, Fla. - A wooded lot became the focus of a zoning battle Monday before the Cape Coral City Council.

Residents living near the site at Burnt Store Road north of Van Buren Parkway fought hard to stop a parcel zoned agriculture to being zoned residential-marketplace.

Councilman Kevin McGrail says eventually Burnt Store Road will be six-laned making it a major hurricane evacuation route for northwest Lee County. 

And with that planned expansion McGrail says the land should be developed.  "If the developer wants to move it forward, and that's a huge if, because right now it's in the middle of nowhere in a two lane road.  That leaves them the option of developing it at some time in the future.  While they may put something like a Walgreens in that area, they would also have to have a residential component as well. What?  Anything from an apartment complex to a residential community."

Tony Riggio lives in the area.  He says putting stores on the plot isn't a good idea, "There are plenty of stores that are three miles away, which isn't that far.  People are going to still go to Publix.  Or Wal-Mart which is the same distance as Publix.  Do you think there's enough people around here to support something like this or wind up in five years being half vacant anyway?  That may be a possibility because it's not growing that fast in this part of Cape Coral."