Cape Coral City Council rejected changes to a bald eagle ordinance that would have reduced construction setbacks near eagle nests.
The established setback of 1,100 feet would have been reduced to roughly 660, if approved.
Environmental activist and Sierra Club member Carl Veaux praised the council’s decision, saying that if the changes had been approved Cape citizens would have lost a vital part of their culture.”
“This is our quality of life in Cape coral, without the eagles our culture will die,” Veaux said.
Councilmember Kevin McGrail said he worked on the ordinance as a facilitator between the varied environmental groups and the city’s construction industry to try and find a happy medium.
McGrail said city taxpayers were the ones shouldering the brunt of the ordinance as it now stands, having to buy properties that cannot be developed due to eagle nests.
He said he tried to establish something similar to the ordinance adopted by Bonita Springs.
“I didn’t just want an eagle ordinance, I wanted the best eagle ordinance for our city,” McGrail said.
The proposed change was rejected 6-2 with only McGrail and Councilmember Marty McClain voting in favor.
Cape Coral Construction Industry Association’s Executive Director Heather Mazurkiewicz was disappointed with the outcome, saying the two sides worked to find an amicable middle ground with the ordinance.
“I’m disappointed that city council didn’t make a fiscally responsible decision,” she said. “The CCCIA agreed with all the wants of the environmental agencies in hope we could bring Cape Coral in line with state and federal guidelines.”
Cape Coral Friends of Wildlife’s Pascha Donaldson said the city was becoming an eco-tourism mecca, and adopting the changes to the ordinance would have been counterproductive to that burgeoning trade.
“Our eagle is important … we can market it, we can develop it, I can show people the beauty we have in Cape Coral,” she said. “It can be a money maker for us, and that’s really the bottom line.”
Councilmember Bill Deile agreed.
“I think we’re attempting to develop a branding for our city of eco-tourism, it certainly doesn’t help that (if we enact the changes),” he said.