Cape Council to consider GO Bond proposal
The $60 million GO Bond referendum for city parks that voters approved in November will reach another milestone Monday when the Cape Coral City Council meets for its regular meeting at 4:30 p.m. at City Hall.
The City Council is expected to vote on a resolution to accept a proposal from Bank of America for a term loan to finance a portion of the General Obligation bond’s park improvements.
The loan will not exceed $10.2 million in Series 2019 bonds, and will be secured by ad valorem taxes that the city will levy through a special parks tax, expected to be about .37 mills.
One mill is equal to $1 for every $1,000 of assessed property valuation, in this case, about 37 cents per $1,000.
“They’re doing it in increments because they can’t spend $60 million right off the bat,” Councilmember John Carioscia said of the financing methodology. “From life experience, that’s how they do it.”
The bond money will be used to fund the city’s $60 million parks master plan, which calls for improvements to existing parks as well as the construction of new ones.
Also, on the consent agenda, will be a resolution for the Cape Coral Charter Schools to enter into a 60-month lease agreement for mail processing equipment. The item appeared two weeks ago on the agenda, but was tabled.
“We needed to get a little more information on the costs and why we need them,” Councilmember John Gunter said.
As a consent item, if the item isn’t pulled for discussion, it will pass or not without discussion.
As regarding the municipal charter school system, Council will also look to fill two vacancies on the Charter School Authority, one board member to come from the business community and at-large. The terms are set for three years.
Council will also again discuss the possibility of hiring a council office assistant, which has been continued twice.
What won’t be voted on will be ordinances amending the land use and development regulations and the rezoning of 9,819 acres in the Future Land Use Map.
Instead of a second and final hearing, both were withdrawn and will go through the process again later in the spring, Gunter said.
Residents, particularly in the Four Corners Area and around Old Burnt Store Road had issues with the ordinances, as did Carioscia.
“There was pushback about building next to and in single-family residential areas. They sent us multiple emails concerned about property values and traffic,” Carioscia said. “And what about schools, first responders, where will we get the money to handle this volume of people in five years?”
Also, an award of merit will be presented to Fire Engineer Todd Clark, who on Sept. 29, 2018 responded to an incident, and extricated passengers from a motor vehicle that crashed into a residential swimming pool.