Matlacha Isles-Matlacha Shores, FL

Matlacha Isles-Matlacha Shores is a Lee County census-designated place on the mainland side of Matlacha Pass, the tidal waterway between the mainland and Pine Island and Little Pine Island. Cape Coral borders the community to the north, while the mangrove islands and open water of the pass shape its western view. The 2020 census counted 227 residents. The name joins two small waterfront neighborhoods that sit within the Cape Coral-Fort Myers metropolitan area.

Matlacha Pass is an aquatic preserve used for boating, fishing, and commercial and recreational water traffic. Nearby islands in the Matlacha Pass National Wildlife Refuge provide roosting and nesting habitat for pelicans, egrets, herons, cormorants, ospreys, and bald eagles. Those protected waters give the CDP a different rhythm from inland Lee County neighborhoods. Roads, bridges, mangroves, and tidal channels do most of the organizing here, while Cape Coral supplies the larger mainland connections. Matlacha Isles-Matlacha Shores is defined by its edge: a residential strip looking out across a working estuary.