Live in Four Mile Cove
The river side of the Central Cape around the Midpoint Bridge, where Cape Coral Hospital and the two Caloosa schools are inside the line, every lot but two has City water, and the price of the 995 saltwater lots is the flood map: half the parcels are in FEMA's special flood hazard area and more than half the residents in Lee County's evacuation zone A.
Four Mile Cove is this guide's name for seven of the Gulf American Corporation's plat units on the Caloosahatchee, between Veterans Parkway and the Midpoint Memorial Bridge in the south and Hancock Bridge Parkway in the north, taken from the City's Four Mile Cove Ecological Preserve and the cove the federal place-name file calls Fourmile Cove. The 2020 census counted 11,169 residents in 5,122 homes on its blocks, 8,035 of them in Unit 18 alone, in a city that has grown by about 22% since. Every parcel but two has City water and sewer, Cape Coral Hospital and the Caloosa elementary and middle schools stand on Del Prado Boulevard inside the line, and 995 lots sit on saltwater canals of the City's SW-E system toward the river. The same water sets the risk: FEMA's 2022 maps put 2,573 of the 5,091 parcels in the special flood hazard area, and Lee County puts 6,263 residents in evacuation zone A.
Seven plat units on the river, served by the pipe and exposed to the water
No public body draws or names Cape Coral's neighborhoods, so this guide's line is the City's own plat: Gulf American Corporation units 18 (two parts), 1824, CP, 89, 4ECO and the unpopulated 2824 on the City of Cape Coral's GAC Unit layer, unioned and clipped to the City Boundary layer, 2,487 acres. The name is this site's choice for the set, after the City's Four Mile Cove Ecological Preserve inside it; real-estate listings use it loosely and none of them draws the same line. Del Prado Boulevard runs north to south through the middle. The Caloosahatchee River and its coves are the eastern and south-eastern edge, from the Midpoint Memorial Bridge, whose toll plaza is inside, up the shore past Coral Point and Shorehaven Estates; Veterans Parkway and the preserve close the south; Hancock Bridge Parkway is the northern edge; and Cultural Park, this site's next guide, is to the west. All of it is in Lee County, ZIP code 33990, the Lee County School District and the City's southeast address quadrant; two parcels are in the South Cape redevelopment area's third expansion.
No public body draws or names a neighborhood in Cape Coral, and this guide's name is ours. What the City keeps is the Gulf American Corporation's plat of numbered units, and this guide is seven of them on the river side of the Central Cape, Unit 18 and its neighbors, about 2,487 acres between Veterans Parkway and Hancock Bridge Parkway with Del Prado Boulevard down the middle. We named it for the City's Four Mile Cove Ecological Preserve inside it; listings use the name for lines of their own. The 2020 census counted 11,169 residents in 5,122 homes, 8,035 of them in Unit 18, and the city has grown by about 22% since.
The Rosen brothers bought the peninsula in 1957 and began selling it as lots the next year. What sets this part apart now is what was built on the plat: the Midpoint Memorial Bridge, opened in 1997, lands at its south end; Cape Coral Hospital and the two Caloosa schools stand on Del Prado Boulevard, with a Walmart, a Publix and an Aldi on the same road. And the pipe is in: 5,089 of the 5,091 parcels have City water and 5,084 sewer, so the utility extension assessment that waits for buyers in the north is not a question here.
The water comes in kinds. The City's parcel layer puts 995 lots on saltwater canals, all on its SW-E system toward the river, 568 on freshwater canals and 4 on the river, and 1,463 carry a seawall. Whether a dock reaches open water without passing under a fixed bridge was not traced, so this guide says nothing about sailboat access: the Del Prado Boulevard bridge over the Honolulu Canal, inside the line, has a clearance of 11.25 feet, and the boat and the route have to be checked together.
The same water is the risk. FEMA's maps, in force since 17 November 2022, put 2,573 of the 5,091 parcels in the special flood hazard area; at the reference point the base flood elevation is 8 feet. Lee County puts 6,263 residents, 56%, in evacuation zone A, often ordered out for any named Gulf storm. Hurricane Ian came ashore on Cayo Costa on 28 September 2022, and the National Hurricane Center puts the highest water at 6 to 9 feet above ground in Cape Coral; its sensor here was lost, and no layer found records which streets flooded. The City applies FEMA's 50% rule permit by permit: work costing half the building's value brings it up to current flood rules.
No price index follows this line. Zillow's typical value for ZIP code 33990, which holds every resident, was $322,222 in August 2026, down 3.5%, but the ZIP held 32,717 people, Cultural Park's among them. Every City address pays the same thirteen levies, 15.3806 mills for 2025, with no fire district. A homesteaded buyer at the ZIP figure owes about $4,320 a year on the base exemption amounts, a landlord about $4,956; at the board's Cape Coral region median of $389,950, about $5,362. The City's fire, stormwater and solid waste assessments add about $1,063 for 2026-27, and no exemption touches them. Save Our Homes resets on a sale. The arithmetic is on the Cape Coral page.
- Run the address on FEMA's map and Lee County's evacuation map, ask for the elevation certificate, and price a flood policy: it starts 30 days after purchase unless bought with the mortgage
- On a canal lot, have the seawall inspected, and check the bridges between the dock and the river against your boat
- Ask what the house took in Ian in 2022 and what was repaired under permit: the 50% rule counts each permit
- Estimate the tax at your purchase price, then add the City's fire, stormwater and solid waste lines
How Four Mile Cove got here
- 1957Leonard and Jack Rosen, developers from Baltimore, buy a 103-square-mile tract on the peninsula across the Caloosahatchee from Fort Myers for $678,000; development as a planned community begins in 1958, through the Gulf American Land Corporation, which sells the land as platted lots.
- 1970Cape Coral incorporates as a city on 18 August.
- 1997The Midpoint Memorial Bridge opens on 19 October, carrying Veterans Parkway across the river to Colonial Boulevard in Fort Myers; Lee County's toll plaza is inside this guide's line.
- 2020The census counts 11,169 residents and 5,122 homes on the guide's blocks.
- 2022Hurricane Ian makes landfall on Cayo Costa on 28 September; the National Hurricane Center puts maximum inundation at 6 to 9 feet above ground in Cape Coral and the other communities at the river mouth, where its Cape Coral sensor was lost. New FEMA flood maps for Lee County take effect on 17 November.
- 2025From 10 July the City judges the 50% substantial improvement rule permit by permit, no longer adding up earlier improvements.
- 2026The state grades Caloosa Elementary B for a third year and Caloosa Middle B after C; the City Council sets the 2026-27 fire, stormwater and solid waste assessments on 26 August.
A 365-acre mangrove preserve, a football ground and a banyan
The City's Four Mile Cove Ecological Preserve, a brackish wetland the state required to be kept, is 365 acres with a 6,600-foot trail and boardwalk, open from 8 a.m. to dusk. Paul Sanborn Park has courts and one of the few banyan trees left in the city. The photographs are of the river and the bridge farther south, not of these parks.
What the map does not show: how the canal lots took Ian's water. No source read here counts the homes that flooded.
Elsewhere in Cape Coral, not Four Mile Cove
23 places, with real drive times
Road-adjusted distance and drive time from the centre of the community to each destination, nearest first. Filter by category.
Showing 1–12 of 23 places, nearest first.
Method: straight lines from the population-weighted center of Four Mile Cove's census blocks, in Unit 18 east of Del Prado Boulevard, times a road factor of 1.32, with a tiered speed model: honest ranges, not routed times.
Every gym within reach
The City's nearest center, the Lake Kennedy Center, serves mostly adults 50 and over. No year-round public pool is open in the city: the nearest County pool is in North Fort Myers.
- North Fort Myers Community Pool: about 5.5 km by road, year-round, $3 for an adult
- Sun Splash Family Waterpark: about 6 km, open into mid-October in 2026
- Lake Kennedy Center: about 6 km, weekdays 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
| Facility | What it is | Drive |
|---|---|---|
| Lake Kennedy Center open | The City's recreation center at 400 Santa Barbara Boulevard, in Lake Kennedy: classes, workshops and day trips, mostly for adults 50 and over, with programs for families and children; weekdays 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. | 9–13 min |
| Sun Splash Family Waterpark open | The City's water park on West Lake Kennedy Drive, seasonal, open 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. into mid-October 2026 on its calendar; the only public pool open inside the city. | 9–14 min |
| North Fort Myers Community Pool open | Lee County's pool at 5170 Orange Grove Boulevard in North Fort Myers, open to the public year-round: $3 for adults, $2 for seniors and children. The County's school pool at North Fort Myers High is permit-only. | 8–12 min |
| Paul Sanborn Park open | The free option inside the line: the City's basketball courts and a walking and exercise path at 2310 SE 3rd Street. | 5–7 min |
| Four Mile Cove Ecological Preserve open | Also free: 6,600 feet of trail and boardwalk through the mangroves, 8 a.m. to dusk; walking only, no jogging or bikes. | 6–9 min |
The free option is inside the line: Paul Sanborn Park's courts and path, and the preserve's boardwalk, which is for walking only.
Ranked choice and a lottery, with two Caloosa schools inside the line
The School District of Lee County assigns no school by address: families rank their zone's schools and a lottery places the child. At the reference point the locator gives elementary Zone B, with Caloosa Elementary inside the line, graded B; middle Zone CC, with Caloosa Middle; and high school West Zone 2, nearest North Fort Myers High, graded A.
| School | Board | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Caloosa Elementary School | The School District of Lee County | 620 Del Prado Boulevard South, inside the line and 1.4 km from the reference point. Lee County assigns no school by address: the district's SchoolSite Locator puts the point in elementary Zone B, where a family ranks Caloosa, Diplomat, Hancock Creek, Littleton and Tropic Isles and a lottery places the child, with preference for siblings, then a school within 2 miles (with no bus inside that radius), then the nearest. Caloosa is graded B for 2026, 2025 and 2024; Diplomat A for all three, Hancock Creek A for 2026 after two Cs. |
| Caloosa Middle School | The School District of Lee County | 610 Del Prado Boulevard South, inside the line. The point is in middle Zone CC (Caloosa Middle, Diplomat Middle, North Fort Myers Academy for the Arts and the Bayshore School); the district warned Cape Coral families in January 2026 that the line between middle Zones AA and CC had moved, so run the exact address. Graded B for 2026, C for 2025 and B for 2024. |
| North Fort Myers High School | The School District of Lee County | 5000 Orange Grove Boulevard, North Fort Myers, 3.8 km away, the nearest of the five high schools in West Zone 2, where the point is: North Fort Myers (A for 2026 and 2025), Cape Coral (B all three years), Ida S. Baker (B), Island Coast and Mariner (C). Families rank them and a lottery decides. The grades are the Florida Department of Education's, as CBS12 republished them. |
Run your own address. The district moved the line between middle Zones AA and CC for 2026-27, and living within 2 miles of a school wins preference but no bus. The grades are the state's, as CBS12 republished them.
Month by month, what living here looks like
Not a highlights reel: the actual annual rhythm, including the dates residents have to remember.
- Highs near 24 °C and lows near 12 °C on NOAA's 1991 to 2020 normal for Page Field in Fort Myers, about 9 km south-east across the river, with about 62 mm of rain
- The Cape Coral Art Festival fills Cape Coral Parkway downtown, about 8 km south, on 9 and 10 January 2027
- Bought last year? File the homestead exemption with the Lee County Property Appraiser by 1 March
- About 45 mm of rain and highs near 26 °C
- The last full month to file a homestead exemption for a house bought last year: the deadline is 1 March
- 1 March is the deadline for the homestead exemption and for portability of a Save Our Homes benefit
- Highs near 27 °C and about 53 mm of rain
- Highs near 30 °C, about five days reaching 32 °C, and about 62 mm of rain
- Ask for the elevation certificate before the storm months: the reference point is in FEMA zone AE with a base flood elevation of 8 feet
- About 16 days reaching 32 °C and 88 mm of rain
- A new flood policy starts 30 days after purchase unless it is bought with a mortgage: buy it before June, not when a storm is named
- The Atlantic hurricane season runs from 1 June to 30 November
- The wet season begins: about 245 mm of rain, mostly in afternoon thunderstorms, and 22 days reaching 32 °C
- Red, White & BOOM fills Cape Coral Parkway at the foot of the Cape Coral Bridge, about 8 km south, from 5 to 10 p.m. on 4 July 2027; the bridge closes for the day
- Highs near 33 °C and about 238 mm of rain
- The property appraiser mails the TRIM notice of proposed taxes in August; a petition to the value adjustment board is due within 25 days of the mailing
- The wettest month on the normal, about 265 mm, with 25 days reaching 32 °C
- The Atlantic season peaks around 10 September; 6,263 residents here are in Lee County's evacuation zone A, which is ordered out first
- Hurricane Ian came ashore on Cayo Costa on 28 September 2022
- About 229 mm of rain
- The City's fiscal 2026-27 begins, with the assessments the Council set on 26 August: fire service at $341.63 a parcel plus $3.16 for each $5,000 of structure value, stormwater at $163 and solid waste at $384.25 a home
- Trunk or Treat on the City Hall lawn, about 3 km west, on 23 October 2026
- The rains ease to about 78 mm
- Holiday Nights on the Lawn at City Hall on 27 and 28 November 2026, with a tree and menorah lighting
- Hurricane season ends on 30 November
- The City's Holiday Boat-a-Long on the Bimini Basin at Four Freedoms Park, about 8.5 km south-west, on 19 December 2026
- Highs near 25 °C and about 48 mm of rain
2 more photographs of Cape Coral and the region
Drawn from the site's shared, freely licensed Cape Coral photo library, not photographs of Four Mile Cove itself. Filter by category.
Showing 1–2 of 2 photographs.
About these photographs. Openly licensed images from the site's shared Cape Coral library, found on Wikimedia Commons and served from there with full attribution. None of them is presented as a photograph of Four Mile Cove.