The city of Cape Coral is working on its utility extension project, which is meant to bring city water, sewer and irrigation to thousands who live in the city.
Don Freman lives in northwest Cape Coral, which is part of the UEP North 3 project.
"We like the area," he said. "I like being on the canal. I like the proximity to the Gulf."
Living near the water is a luxury. What won’t be a luxury is if the water he uses every day disappears.
"All you have to do is look around in the Northwest, and there's houses on top of houses on top of houses, and they're all backed up to canals," he said. "Sooner or later, you're going to have failing septic systems."
The North Utility Extension 3 area is between Burnt Store Road, Kismet Parkway and Embers Parkway, an area where most people have well water. The city is planning on putting everyone on city water. It’s well along in the design phase, but other UEP projects are already being worked on.
"I understand why they're prioritizing other areas, but there's no reason this area can't move forward also because the design is going to be done," he said.
Freman knows the project won’t be cheap, and it’s going to be messy.
"It's kind of a good thing if you want to sell now because it's hard to sell a home once the project is announced and people know that the roads are going to be torn up and there's going to be lots of dirt," said Sam Yaffey, a Realtor with Experience Real Estate Group.
Yaffey knows it will be hard to sell during the project, and worries the work could take longer than expected.
"The problem with projects of this magnitude and this type of project is they don't know what they're going to hit when they get the ground," Yaffey said. "They don't know what kind of problems they're going to have."
While getting new water will likely come with some issues, Freman is still happy he lives in paradise.
"There's a lot of growing pains associated with it, but we're, we're pleased with moving here."
The city said the UEP 3 project will take about two years and be complete in 2028 or 2029. It said the whole problem should be mitigated by 2030.