Cape Coral mayoral candidate calls for fair enforcement of campaign sign rules
CAPE CORAL, Fla. —
Campaign signs are appearing across Cape Coral as the primary election for mayor intensifies, with voters closely watching the candidates.
Lisa Cohen-Adkinson, a candidate for Cape Coral mayor, said her team has already been instructed to remove signs from medians because they believe it violates city code.
“I know people have made a lot of complaints to code enforcement. Unfortunately, we have not seen any results from that yet,” Cohen-Adkinson said.
She is now calling for the rules to be applied fairly to all candidates.
On July 4, residents began noticing that Mayor John Gunter’s campaign tools appeared to violate city regulations. First, a campaign truck was reportedly parked on a dirt lot. Second, one of the mayor’s campaign signs was measured and found to be taller than the six-foot limit required by city code.
“I don’t care about signage. You are supposed to be able to have signage. It just needs to be fair across the board. And that goes for every candidate, not just him,” said Cape Coral resident Julie Ettari.
Cohen-Adkinson also addressed reports of vandalism targeting her opponent’s campaign signs.
“We have to do things the right way, even when there is unjust imbalances in the government and how we apply these things just should not be happening in our community,” she said.
The City of Cape Coral got back to Gulf Coast News Wednesday evening and says the 9-foot-tall sign is in fact legal because it is on a commercially zoned parcel, and campaign signs on commercial lots are subject to different standards than temporary yard signs on residential lots. Under those commercial sign standards, a sign over six feet in height can be fully compliant, and the sign featured is not in violation of city code.
The city adds that if a member of the public believes there is a sign or other code issue, they should contact Code Compliance or call 311. The concern will then be handled the same way as any other code complaint, regardless of the candidate or property owner.
The city also said that the rules are being applied fairly. Within the past few weeks, city staff opened a code case on one of Mayor Gunter’s signs on Del Prado Boulevard. The mayor took down the sign after being notified of the code case.
Attempts to reach Gunter for comment regarding the campaign truck and signage were unsuccessful.
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