Cape Coral, Florida
Boat and trailer storage for Cape Coral owners.
Cape Coral is built around the water, more canal frontage than any city on earth, and almost every household on it owns a boat. What most of those households do not have is anywhere the city's ordinances and the deed restrictions will let them keep the trailer, the second boat, or the RV.
The seawall behind the house is a mooring, not storage. This page is about the rest of it.
Getting here from Cape Coral
13461 Shire Lane
About 30–40 minutes depending on which bridge you take · Roughly 20–25 miles
About 30–40 minutes depending on which bridge you take · Roughly 20–25 milesVeterans Parkway or Cape Coral Parkway to the Midpoint or Cape Coral bridge, then Colonial Boulevard or Daniels Parkway east to Shire Lane.
- Inland from the open Gulf
- 9 miles
- FEMA flood zone
- Zone X
- Wind design
- 170 mph
Flood
The flood zone in Cape Coral, and the flood zone here.
Zones are assigned parcel by parcel. Check your own address before relying on any general description.
Current exposure
Cape Coral
- FEMA flood zone
- Much of Cape Coral sits in FEMA Special Flood Hazard Areas, AE zones along the canal system, with VE exposure at the southern and western waterfront.
- Surge pathway
- Canals conduct surge inland. Water reached homes well away from open water in 2022.
The Excalibur position
Excalibur, Fort Myers
- FEMA flood zone
- FEMA Flood Zone X, outside the Special Flood Hazard Area
- Surge pathway
- Roughly nine miles inland from the open Gulf
Verify your own address
Flood zones are assigned parcel by parcel. The figures above describe each community in general terms and must be checked against Lee County GIS and the FEMA Flood Map Service Center for any specific address.
What Hurricane Ian did in Cape Coral.
Ian's eyewall crossed Cape Coral directly. A gust of 140 mph was recorded near the city, and the canal system carried surge deep into neighborhoods that had never taken water before, the canals that make the Cape what it is are also the pathways that let the Gulf in.
Boats came off lifts. Vehicles parked in driveways and open garages along the southern canals were submerged in salt water, which for anything built in the last thirty years generally means a total loss rather than a repair. Lee County filed 272,299 insurance claims in the aftermath.
People here lost homes, and some lost more than that. We are stating what happened because it is the reason Cape Coral owners search for inland storage, not because it makes a good advertisement.
One inland home for the boat, trailer and tow vehicle.
Overwhelmingly a boat owner.
Often a second boat, a jet ski trailer, a truck to tow with, and a set of deed restrictions in Cape Harbour, Tarpon Point, Sandoval or one of the newer gated sections that prohibits keeping any of it on the lot.
The usual alternative is a dry-stack rack in a coastal building at low elevation, or a gravel lot.
A unit here puts the boat, the trailer and the tow vehicle nine miles inland in FEMA Flood Zone X for a $1,000 / quarter association fee, with taxes and insurance additional.
The other Cape Coral buyer is the canal-home owner who simply wants the driveway back and the code enforcement letters to stop.
The cars
In a city with four hundred miles of canals the boat gets the attention, and the cars turn out to be the harder problem.
A garage in Cape Coral is a garage in a Special Flood Hazard Area. The city sits across FEMA zones A and B, Ian's eyewall crossed it directly with gusts recorded at 140 mph, and Lee County went on to file 272,299 insurance claims, more than any other county in Florida. Excalibur is nine miles inland in Zone X, outside the Special Flood Hazard Area, engineered to a 170 mph ultimate design wind speed.
For a car that matters, the collector car, the convertible, the one that does not get driven in August, the zone difference is the entire specification. The rest is convenience: 220V/150A, 1 or 3 phase per bay for a tender or a charger, climate control dedicated to your unit rather than averaged across a building, and a door wide enough that the tow vehicle and the trailer stop being a separate arrangement somewhere else.
The plans Cape Coral owners choose for serious storage.
Lance
2,028 sq ft · 676 sq ft second floor
2,028 sq ft, long and narrow. Boat on the trailer, tow vehicle behind it, with depth rather than width, which is what a trailered boat needs.
Lance plans
Wizard
2,708 sq ft · 650 sq ft second floor
2,708 sq ft double. The boat on one side, cars and the trailer on the other, and a workshop wall along the back.
Wizard plansWhat discerning Cape Coral buyers ask before they own.
The site-wide facts, stated once: 170 mph ultimate design wind speed, FEMA Flood Zone X, outside the Special Flood Hazard Area, roughly nine miles inland from the open Gulf, and an association fee of $1,000 per quarter on a 1,350 sq ft unit, increasing pro rata with size. RV dump station on site, included in the association fee. How the building is engineered and what it costs to own are explained in full on their own pages.