RVs to get new homes in Cape

Development to offer oversized garages

By DON RUANE

Published on November 18, 2004

Super garages with room for a full-sized recreational motor home or big boat are planned for a neighborhood of custom-built homes in Cape Coral.

The doorways will be about 15 to 18 feet tall to provide clearance for an RV with a height of about 11.5 feet, said developer Mel Wroten of Realty Partners & Co. of Cape Coral. "Even somebody with a big boat could put that in there," Wroten said.

He plans to build the development just north of the Cape Coral Executive Golf Course.

"It's the only gated community that will be RV friendly," Wroten said. The project, named Pinewood Lakes — although it has just one lake — may be the first of its kind for Southwest Florida.

"There are other communities in the state that have that, but there is nothing locally," said Jack Carver, spokesman for the Florida RV Trade Association.

One called Citrus Highlands is in Clermont on U.S. 27, about 30 minutes west of downtown Orlando. Homes there include an RV port and a two-car garage.

Citrus Highlands, according to the development's Web site, "is for people who want the comfortable Florida lifestyle and a protected place to keep their valuable RVs."

Pinewood Lakes is good for Cape Coral, which people found RV unfriendly in the past because of its rule against keeping an RV outdoors at home, Carver said. RVs can be kept at home on a permanent basis if they are parked inside the garage. Temporary permits — good for 72 hours — allow RV owners to park at home to load them before or unload them after a trip.

Cape Coral RV owners must find a place to store their RV when they are not using it. Some have businesses and keep them there. Others rent space in storage yards. Renting space can cost $200 a month, Wroten said.

Patty Holmes of Cape Coral and her family store an RV at their business.

But the convenience of parking the vehicle out back isn't reason enough to consider living in a place such as Pinewood Lakes, she said.

With four children at home, a development has to be close to schools, a grocery store and other needs of the family to be attractive to her, Holmes said. Older people who do not have children at home might be more interested, she said.

There is a market for that housing, said Dot Gabriel, manager of the Shady Acres RV Travel Park in San Carlos Park. The RV lifestyle is popular, she added.

"Even here in San Carlos Park, on one road alone I see six or seven motor homes parked in driveways. They sit there unprotected," Gabriel said.

Pinewood Lakes still has to go through Cape Coral's zoning commission and the city council to get its plans approved. City officials are writing a developing order for the project that will set down the terms and conditions Wroten must meet for the project, said Linda Miller of Avalon Engineering. She is assisting with the paperwork part of the project.

Avalon Vice President Cliff Repperger said public hearings on the development order might be held by the end of the year, with construction starting within a month of those.

Wroten hopes to get the 58-home project under way early next year. Permits have been obtained for clearing the ground and for on-site water management from the Southwest Florida Water Management District.

RV garages will be placed at the rear of property and be connected by breezeways to the homes, Wroten said.

The development's roads are designed to allow enough room for the long motor homes to operate, Repperger said.

An eight-foot barrier, consisting of a two-foot high berm topped by a six-foot concrete wall, is planned to help conceal the project from neighbors. The wall also provides security for the development.

"It's going to be very upscale," Wroten said.

Homes will sell from $375,000 to $475,000 and the minimum living area of 2,000 square feet. The homes will have an old Florida look and underground utilities.