Cape Coral keeps growing and transportation officials are considering giving one of the city's busiest thoroughfares extra elbow room to keep up with the hustle and bustle.
The city's Transportation Advisory Board will talk about expanding the downtown section of Cape Coral Parkway from four to six lanes during their meeting Wednesday, among other improvements to help ease traffic flow.
To create room for two more lanes, the city could get rid of the street parking on this stretch of Cape Coral Parkway. Some drivers think the extra space for cars will speed up morning and afternoon commutes, especially getting on and off the bridge.
"Nobody wants to be in traffic," said Vincent Christopher, who's lived in the Cape for only a couple years but has noticed the ongoing construction in the city surge. "The cove down here that’s gonna add a lot of traffic. And the Bimini Basin project."
Paul Chalkias, who owns the Greek Spot and Sweet Spot Creamery downtown, also agrees Cape Coral Parkway needs to widen to support future growth, but worries eliminating the street parking will have a negative impact on businesses.
"We use it almost on a daily basis," said Chalkias. "We have a limited parking in the back so that parking out front is really important to us. We’ve discussed with the city parking garages and taking trolleys here...It’s almost inevitable that we’re going to need more parking."
The city of Cape Coral says no parking spots will be lost with the project. For every parking spot removed, they will be making a new parking spot on an adjacent street, if the plans get the greenlight.
Transportation officials are also talking about changing the signal timing on Cape Coral Parkway from Chiquita to Del Prado and on Del Prado, from Cape Coral Parkway to SE 46th St. The expansion project is still very early in the works, the city says a design wouldn't be ready until at least the spring of 2025.