Senior planner Anthony Santora presented comprehensive proposed amendments to the land\u2011development code section on fences, walls, bulkheads and seawalls. The package adds a formal definition of ‘retaining wall’ (structures built to resist lateral soil pressure), separates retaining\u2011wall criteria from seawall\/bulkhead rules, and establishes new limitations designed to preserve waterfront view corridors and minimize adverse drainage impacts.<\/p>\n
Key proposed rules include: a 5\u2011foot maximum retaining\u2011wall height (with written city approval allowed in special circumstances), a maximum of 3 feet for retaining walls within 10 feet of a rear property line (to protect views), and a 3\u2011foot maximum fence\/vegetation height in prescribed waterfront setback zones (with transparent\/open mesh allowed above 3 feet subject to minimum visibility). The draft also bans retaining walls within 6 feet of a property line except in limited stabilization situations, and allows city manager\u2011approved exceptions for city property and emergency protective work.<\/p>\n
Council raised a number of engineering and practical concerns: many new houses place pool decks at the 10\u2011foot seawall setback and modern finished\u2011floor elevations make the proposed 3\u2011foot cap difficult to reconcile with fall\u2011protection requirements; several council members urged staff to consult with builders and return with adjusted language that maintains safety, drainage and view protections. Staff agreed to discuss proposals with construction industry representatives and to return the draft ordinance to Committee of the Whole after incorporating that feedback.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Senior planner Anthony Santora presented comprehensive proposed amendments to the land\u2011development code section on fences, walls, bulkheads and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":47352,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210],"class_list":["post-47351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47351\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}