Sunday, January 28, 2018

Important Call To Action

We need all supporters to come to the City Council meeting tomorrow, Monday, January 29 at 4:30 pm.   The council will be discussing their thoughts on the future of the golf course and will hopefully provide some direction to the city manager and how to move forward.  One of the options being discussed will be to purchase the property!  Another one however will be to develop homes on it again.  So we urge you to attend and show by your presence support for purchasing the property. Wear your green shirts if you have them.

Also, below is a summary of the meeting of Save Our Recreation held on Wednesday, January 25. This summary was provided to each of the city council members and the mayor.

Dear Mayor Coviello and Councilmembers:

On Wednesday January 24th at the Cape Coral Library Save Our Recreation held a meeting to discuss the old golf course.  We reviewed the options presented in City Manager Szerlag’s December 29, 2017 memo to the Mayor and Council.  We also reviewed the development themes presented in the Parks Department December 28, 2017 memo to the City Manager.  We talked about the importance of the city, county or some combination buying this property to preserve it as a Parks and Recreation based property that can be enjoyed by citizens for years to come.  There was gratitude expressed by all that the DR Horton proposal did not proceed and that we are at a point where the Council will now have a full and open discussion on all options for this unique property. 

We also discussed the importance of developing it such that the property will be something to be enjoyed by the community at large and be an asset for the City as a whole understanding that this may require multiple uses of different sections of the property.  We listened to many questions and comments.  There is significant support for using 20/20 funds for at least a portion of the property. At the end we asked three questions to see how much consensus could be reached with the group.  The first questions was:

Can we all agree to support a purchase by the city using any of the methods suggested?
There was unanimous support for the city purchasing it

Can we support multiple uses going forward so that the city can develop the property such that it meets multiple community needs (more than just a park for the neighbors)?
There was overwhelming, but not unanimous support for this.  There were some who support keeping it a wildlife/conservation park in its entirety, otherwise there were no concerns raised with the development themes raised in the Parks Department memo.

Can we be flexible as to future uses consistent with Parks and Recreation and agree to participate in the future on development details and not get hung up on those details now
There was unanimous support for this.

If you have any questions or would like to discuss anything further on this, please contact either one of us.

Mary Neilson, Treasurer - Save Our Recreation
Barth Wolf, President - Save Our Recreation