Live in Pelican
Inland Southwest Cape on Pelican Boulevard, where two lots in five are on the water, 1,831 of them on saltwater canals, City water reaches every parcel, and 84% of the 2020 residents were in Lee County's second evacuation zone rather than the first.
Pelican is a name Homes.com, Nextdoor and NeighborhoodScout all use, and the name of the boulevard, the elementary school and the City's ball fields at its middle; this guide gives it a line of its own, four of the Gulf American plat units between Skyline and Santa Barbara Boulevards from El Dorado Parkway north to Gleason Parkway, 2,049 acres where the 2020 census counted 9,420 residents in 4,882 homes. Of the 5,105 parcels on the City's records, 1,831 are on saltwater canals, most in the SW-D system that runs east toward the Yacht Club, and 202 on fresh water; City water reaches all of them, and 3,134 records name the extension project that brought it Pelican. FEMA's 2022 maps put about three quarters of the ground in the 1% annual chance flood zone, and Hurricane Ian's surge, which the National Hurricane Center puts at 6 to 9 feet above ground at its worst in Cape Coral, is the reason that matters; no public record says which of these streets took water. Zillow's typical value for ZIP code 33914 was $421,223 in August 2026, down 2.4% on the year, but the ZIP held 42,222 people across five of this site's guides and is not a Pelican price.
A canal grid one step back from the river, with the ball fields at its middle
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 3, 30, 44 and 45 on the Department of Community Development's GAC Unit layer (six features; Unit 45's other part is in the Skyline guide), joined and clipped to the City Boundary layer, 2,049 acres. The trade's Pelican has lines of its own that do not agree with each other and usually take in the Skyline guide's units too; the name here is the trade's, and the line is this site's, not the City's. Traced against the City's Major Streets and Canals layers: Skyline Boulevard on the west, from El Dorado Parkway north to Gleason Parkway; Gleason Parkway on the north, east to Santa Barbara Boulevard; Santa Barbara Boulevard on the east, south to Cape Coral Parkway; below Cape Coral Parkway the San Carlos and Bimini canals on the east, with a narrow strip of Unit 3 running south between canals to the Buccaneer Basin; and El Dorado Parkway on the south, back west to Skyline Boulevard. Pelican Boulevard runs through the middle from north to south. Skyline is across Skyline Boulevard, South Cape across Santa Barbara Boulevard, the Yacht Club to the south-east and Cape Harbour south of El Dorado Parkway. Inside are Pelican Elementary School, the City's Pelican Baseball and Soccer Complexes, Cape Coral Fire Station 9 and a Publix on Cape Coral Parkway West. Every resident is in the southwest address quadrant, ZIP code 33914 and the Lee County School District, and no part is in a redevelopment area.
Pelican is a name the trade uses, and this guide draws the line. The City publishes no map of neighborhoods, and Homes.com, Nextdoor and NeighborhoodScout each draw their own Pelican, usually with the Skyline guide's units in it. This guide uses the City's plat: Gulf American Corporation Units 3, 30, 44 and 45, 2,049 acres between Skyline and Santa Barbara Boulevards from El Dorado Parkway north to Gleason Parkway, with Pelican Boulevard down the middle. The 2020 census counted 9,420 residents in 4,882 homes. The city has grown about 22% since, so that is 2020's count.
Its center is civic rather than commercial. The City's Pelican Baseball Complex, four lighted youth fields on 16 acres, sits beside the reference point, the Pelican Soccer Complex next to it, and Pelican Elementary and Fire Station 9 are inside the line. A Publix on Cape Coral Parkway West is inside the line. City water and sewer reach essentially every parcel, and 3,134 records name the extension project that brought them Pelican; the City's table gives no amount for it, so read the seller's bill for any installment still running.
Two lots in five are on the water. The City counts 1,831 lots on saltwater canals, 1,491 in the SW-D system that runs east toward the Yacht Club and 340 in SW-C to the west, and 202 on fresh water, which has no Gulf access. Whether a dock can take a sailboat out without passing under a fixed bridge was not worked out here; three bridges cross canals inside the line alone, two with recorded clearances of 9.3 and 11.75 feet, so ask about the route from the specific lot.
The flood map reaches well inland. FEMA's 2022 maps put 76.6% of the ground, canals included, in the 1% annual chance flood zone, and the reference point in zone AE with a base flood elevation of 8 feet. Lee County's map is gentler: 7,951 residents, 84%, are in evacuation zone B, and the 1,469 south of Cape Coral Parkway in zone A, ordered out first. Hurricane Ian came ashore on Cayo Costa, west of the city, on 28 September 2022, with maximum inundation of 6 to 9 feet above ground in Cape Coral in the National Hurricane Center's report. No record found says which of these streets flooded.
No price index follows the plat. Zillow's typical value for ZIP code 33914 was $421,223 in August 2026, down 2.4%, but the ZIP holds four more of this site's guides, Cape Harbour's waterfront among them. Every City address pays the same thirteen levies, 15.3806 mills for 2025: a homesteaded buyer at the ZIP figure owes about $5,843 a year on the base exemption amounts, a landlord $6,479, and at the $389,950 median for the Royal Palm Coast Realtor Association's Cape Coral region, $5,362. The City's fire, stormwater and solid waste assessments add about $1,063 on an average house for 2026-27, untouched by any exemption. Save Our Homes resets on a sale, so the seller's bill understates yours. See the Cape Coral page.
- Check which canal the lot is on: fresh water has no route to the Gulf, and salt canals pass under bridges
- Run the address on FEMA's map and Lee County's evacuation map; south of Cape Coral Parkway is zone A
- Price a flood policy: homeowners cover does not include rising water, and a federal policy waits 30 days
- Read the seller's bill for the City's assessments and any utility extension installment
How Pelican got here
- 1957Leonard and Jack Rosen and a few partners buy a 103-square-mile tract on Redfish Point, across the Caloosahatchee from Fort Myers, for $678,000.
- 1958The Gulf American Land Corporation begins developing it as a planned city of numbered plat units, lots and dug canals; the first four homes are finished in May on Riverside and Flamingo Drives.
- 1970Cape Coral incorporates on 18 August.
- 1991The City joins FEMA's Community Rating System; it reaches Class 5 in 2010, worth a 25% discount on flood policies in the A and V zones.
- 2020The census counts 9,420 residents and 4,882 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's mouth. New FEMA flood maps for Lee County take effect on 17 November.
- 2023The Lee County School District begins its Proximity Plan for elementary schools, ranking choice within smaller zones; middle schools follow in 2024-25.
- 2025From 10 July the City judges FEMA's 50% substantial improvement rule permit by permit, without adding up earlier work, under two 2025 state laws.
- 2026Pelican Elementary is graded C for 2026 after two years of B. On 26 August the Council sets the 2026-27 fire service, stormwater and solid waste assessments.
Two City sports complexes at the center, the nature park to the south
The Pelican Baseball Complex on Pelican Boulevard is home to the Cape Coral Pelican Baseball League, ages 4 to 12, and the Pelican Soccer Complex on SW 2nd Court to the Cape Coral Cyclone youth program; both have lighted fields and playgrounds. South of the guide, Rotary Park has 97 acres of trails, a butterfly house and a boardwalk on Glover Bight. None of the photographs here is of these parks.
What the map does not show: how these streets fared in 2022. No damage record by parcel was found.
Elsewhere in Cape Coral, not Pelican
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 the guide's census blocks, by the baseball complex, times a road factor of 1.32, with a tiered speed model: honest ranges, not routed times.
Every gym within reach
No City gym is inside the line. The nearest recreation center is at Four Freedoms Park downtown and the nearest YMCA in Fort Myers. No year-round public pool is open in Cape Coral: the Yacht Club pool awaits an unfunded rebuild and the Cape Coral High School pool is not public.
- Four Freedoms Park recreation center: about 3 km, open 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday to Thursday
- Fort Myers YMCA: about 12.5 km, with indoor and outdoor pools
- North Fort Myers Community Pool: about 16 km, year-round, $3 for an adult
| Facility | What it is | Drive |
|---|---|---|
| Four Freedoms Park open | The City's nearest recreation center, a 3,900-square-foot multipurpose building at 4818 Tarpon Court on the Bimini Basin, downtown: open 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday to Thursday and to 4 p.m. Friday. Programs and fees were not read. | 6–9 min |
| Fort Myers YMCA open | The nearest YMCA, at 1360 Royal Palm Square Boulevard in Fort Myers, across the river: a fitness center, indoor and outdoor pools and a gymnasium. The YMCA of Southwest Florida lists no branch in Cape Coral. | 14–20 min |
| North Fort Myers Community Pool open | The nearest public pool open to everyone, Lee County's year-round pool in North Fort Myers: $3 for an adult, $2 for seniors and children. No year-round public pool is open inside the city. | 13–20 min |
| Rotary Park open | The free option, south of the guide: a walking path with fitness stations and nature trails, Monday to Saturday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. (no running or biking on the trails). | 6–10 min |
| Yacht Club Community Park closed | The City's riverfront park south-east of the guide: its pool is closed for a rebuild whose plans were complete in January 2026 but which the Council had not funded as of May 2026. | 9–13 min |
The free option is Rotary Park's walking path with fitness stations, south of the guide, open Monday to Saturday.
Ranked choice and a lottery, with a C-graded elementary inside
The School District of Lee County assigns no school by address: families rank the schools of their choice zone and a lottery places children, favoring siblings, then a school within two miles. The district's locator puts the reference point in elementary Zone F, whose schools are Pelican Elementary, inside the line and graded C for 2026, and Cape and Gulf, both graded A; middle Zone BB, Gulf and Trafalgar, both graded A; and high school West subzone 3, with Ida S. Baker nearest.
| School | Board | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Pelican Elementary School | The School District of Lee County | 3525 SW 3rd Avenue, inside the line, 1.3 km from the reference point. Lee County assigns no school by address: the district's locator puts the reference point in elementary choice Zone F, whose schools are Pelican, Cape and Gulf, and families rank them for a lottery that favors siblings, then a school within two miles (which means no bus), then the nearest school. Pelican is graded C for 2026 after B for 2025 and 2024; Cape and Gulf are graded A for 2026. |
| Gulf Middle School | The School District of Lee County | 1809 SW 36th Terrace, about 3.3 km west. The reference point is in middle choice Zone BB, Gulf Middle and Trafalgar Middle, both graded A for 2026; Gulf has been graded A for three years. The district warned in January 2026 that a middle school boundary in Cape Coral had changed, so confirm the zone for the exact address. |
| Ida S. Baker High School | The School District of Lee County | 3500 Agualinda Boulevard, about 3.7 km west, graded B for three years, with the Cambridge program. The reference point is in high school West subzone 3: the locator lists Ida S. Baker, Cape Coral, Mariner and North Fort Myers high schools, and the district's plan adds Island Coast. Cape Coral High, with the IB program, is graded B; North Fort Myers A; Mariner and Island Coast C. The grades are the state's, as CBS12 republished them. |
| Oasis Charter Schools | City of Cape Coral municipal charter schools | The City runs its own charter schools, two Oasis elementaries, a middle and a high school, all graded A for 2026, 2025 and 2024. They are not the district's and admit by application; none is inside the line. Lee County's points layer also puts a private school, Brighton Academy, on Santa Barbara Boulevard at the east edge; its admissions and fees were not read. |
Run your own address. The zones are the reference point's, a seat is not promised, and a child within two miles of the school gets no bus. The district changed a Cape Coral middle school boundary for 2026-27. The City's Oasis charter schools admit by application. 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 the 1991 to 2020 normals at Page Field in Fort Myers, across the river, which NOAA flags as representative for the highs
- The Cape Coral Art Festival fills Cape Coral Parkway downtown on 9 and 10 January 2027
- About 45 mm of rain, the driest month on the normal, with highs near 26 °C
- Bought last year? File the homestead exemption with the Lee County Property Appraiser before 1 March
- The Burrowing Owl Festival fills Rotary Park, just south of the guide, in late February (28 February in 2026)
- 1 March is the deadline for the homestead exemption and for porting a Save Our Homes benefit from a previous Florida home
- Highs near 27 °C and about 53 mm of rain
- Highs near 30 °C and about 62 mm of rain, the last of the dry months
- Look up the house's elevation certificate on the City's Forerunner platform; a building from before 1993 may not have one
- About 88 mm of rain and some 16 days reaching 32 °C as the wet season begins
- A National Flood Insurance Program policy takes 30 days to start: buy it before June, not when a storm is named
- The Atlantic hurricane season runs from 1 June to 30 November
- About 245 mm of rain, mostly in afternoon thunderstorms, and about 22 days reaching 32 °C
- Red, White & Boom fills Cape Coral Parkway at the foot of the Cape Coral Bridge on 4 July, 5 to 10 p.m.; the bridge closes from 3 a.m.
- Highs near 33 °C and lows near 24 °C, with about 238 mm of rain
- The Property Appraiser mails the TRIM notice of proposed taxes in August (17 August in 2026), and a petition to the Value Adjustment Board is due within 25 days of the mailing
- The wettest month on the normal, about 265 mm
- The Atlantic season peaks around 10 September; Ian made landfall on Cayo Costa, west of the city, on 28 September 2022
- About 229 mm of rain and about 20 days reaching 32 °C
- Check the address on Lee County's evacuation zone map: most of this guide is zone B, but the part south of Cape Coral Parkway is zone A
- About 78 mm of rain, a third of September's, with highs near 30 °C
- Hurricane season has two months to run
- The Tax Collector mails the bills in November, with 4% off for paying that month; the City's 2026-27 fire service, stormwater and solid waste assessments are on them
- The Veterans Day Parade runs west along Cape Coral Parkway downtown on 7 November 2026
- Hurricane season ends on 30 November
- The Holiday Boat-a-Long parades on the Bimini Basin from Four Freedoms Park on 19 December 2026, 4 to 9 p.m., free
- Highs near 25 °C and about 48 mm of rain
1 more photograph of Cape Coral and the region
Drawn from the site's shared, freely licensed Cape Coral photo library, not photographs of Pelican itself. Filter by category.
Showing 1–1 of 1 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 Pelican.