Artist rendition of one of the options provided by Lee County.

The aesthetic details for pedestrian overpass near the foot of the Cape Coral bridge were discussed during Wednesday’s Cape Redevelopment Agency meeting with City Council sitting as the CRA governing board.

CRA Executive Director Mike Ilczyszyn said they have been working with the Lee County Department of Transportation staff regarding the South Cape Bridge design options for the pedestrian overpass amenity.

Part of that discussion was looking at where the city would be in 25 to 50 years when it has 300,000 to 400,000 residents looking to have access its waterways.

“The plan for the South Cape Bridge is to have walkways to go over each side of the bridge,” Ilczyszyn said, adding to also provide a pedestrian overpass for runners, or walkers to utilize the park to see the water, boats, and wildlife. “To have a way to get across both sides of the bridge.”

The crosswalk options start off with a basic design — a simple bridge span with a chain link fence from either side of it and then towers that support the structure going over the roadway.

The idea is to eliminate “blight” by adding esthetic features to the basic pedestrian overpass, as the bridge is part of South Cape. The county asked what the city and CRA would like to see, so they could put together some concepts and a general magnitude of cost.

Ilczyszyn said they wanted to have some type of sail, LED lights that they could change throughout the year for different holidays and events, as well as an architectural feature.

The second option, a premium cost of $825,000 is what the city advised Lee County they would like to move forward with.

This option would have “Welcome to Cape Coral” in the center, an anchor that has the individual logos on it with sails above. There would also be art elements of mangroves and greenery to make it look more like a shoreline with waves and sails.

CRA Vice Chair Dan Sheppard said he would like to see an LED screen the full length of the bridge, or at least in the middle, that they could change.

“To me I like that idea than making a permanent image or design because then we are stuck with them. I don’t want it to be stuck to one permanent design for years. If we had that digital opportunity, we would be able to change the pictures,” he said.

Ilczyszyn said he will have further communication with the Lee DOT, although he knows when they first negotiated with the entry structure the changing message was made sure to be off the roadways so it would not cause vehicular crashes.

Commissioner John Gunter said the second option is one he can stand behind. During his comments, he put his “mayor hat on” and spoke about the need for a parking lot as part of the modification of the new bridge and turn lane. It is important to address today’s needs, as well as those in the future, he said.

Ilczyszyn said he did meet with Lee County to discuss how they could, as a CRA, incorporate additional parking that does not exist today at Bernice Braden Park for the pedestrian overpass and bridge. He said they will bring that project and what it looks like at a later date.