CAPE CORAL, Fla. — "What do we need all the parking spots for?"
A question many at Tuesday's workshop meeting had and had some seniors in the crowd demanding answers.
"People aren't going to walk that far," said Tony Adinolfi, a Cape Coral resident. "It seems like it's not far but it's far when you want to go eat."
"That far" is 1,060 feet from the new garage to the boat house. It was the one thing in this master plan that caught everyone's attention and angst.
"You're not going to be able to park and this idea of a drop-off.... Yeah, like somebody's going to drop people off and then have to go all the way to the parking garage, wait for a bus, get a bus or walk over... in 90-degree heat. Are you kidding? There's no point," said Laurie Lehmann, resident.
"You can walk there if you're a young person, three to four minutes, and have a talk, but if you're an older person, it may take you 10 minutes and it's gonna be a deterrent," said Robert Sutter, a resident.
City staff and architects didn't have many solutions to offer but promised residents that they were heard, including their concerns about paying for that far-away parking garage.
"That's pathetic," said Lehman. "Our taxes aren't high enough. When are they going to get their hands out of our pockets?"
Despite the debate over how to get to the Yacht Club, there were other improvements that were well-received, including the club's Key West theme - and of course - its ability to stand up to the next hurricane.
"Some of the regulations have changed so the building is going to be elevated, a little higher than the previous building, and everything will be designed to be hurricane resistant, meet all the building codes and we're raising the sea wall a couple of feet to provide some more flood protection," said Dave Hyyti, City of Cape Coral.
Click here for the Yacht Club rebuild plans.
