Reporter: Paul Dolan
•6/25/2026
CAPE CORAL, Fla. (WINK)—A Cape Coral project meant to make parts of the city easier to walk through is now raising questions for the people who live along the route.
Wooden stakes in the ground mark where sidewalks are coming to Ceitus Parkway, and they're lined up and standing tall in people's front yards. The stakes are small, but the sidewalks that come later are different.
"Most of the neighbors here, that include myself, really didn't want the sidewalk," Thomas Purple said.
Some of those stakes are stuck in Purple's front yard. According to the city, sidewalks will be installed on the south side of the road.
The cost of adding sidewalks to all three areas of the expansion project is about $1.3 million. Costs will impact Purple also.
He told WINK News he already needed to remove palm trees from his front yard because they were inside the line of stakes, and that's just the beginning.
"I'm gonna have a cost prior to the construction, then I'm going to have a cost after the construction because I'm going to have to make sure that the grass is watered," Purple said.
However, this project could help people like Sean Brunelle. He's in a wheelchair and left Cape Coral after one year because he says it was impossible to get around.
"Sidewalks were like a main factor, like, because I'm so heavily reliant on sidewalks to get where I need to go, that if there's no sidewalks, I'm just not going there," Brunelle said. "My life became a lot more limited than it needed to be when I lived in Cape Coral."
The city says the sidewalks will improve pedestrian safety and more. These stakes mean the city is setting a new path forward, but for Purple, that path goes right through his yard.
The city says the sidewalks will fill a gap. For some, the sidewalks could mean safer neighborhoods, but homeowners still have questions about irrigation, driveways, and restoration.
