East Seminole residents relieved after board rejects rural project
Melissa Debach and scores of other east Seminole residents breathed a sigh of relief late Wednesday after a county advisory board unanimously rejected a developer’s plan to build hundreds of homes, townhomes and apartments on pristine pastureland just east of the Econlockhatchee River.
But their relief was short lived.
“I think that it’s not the end of this fight,” Debach, a board member of the group Save Rural Seminole and president of The Sanctuary Community Association, a 744-home neighborhood in Oviedo, said Thursday. “This is just one step. The County Commission is the next step, and I think it’s going to court. And we’re prepared to fight this to the end.”
Plans for the controversial River Cross development — being proposed by former state legislator Chris Dorworth — call for 600 single-family homes, 270 townhouses, 500 apartments and 1.5 million square feet for shops, eateries and offices on 291 environmentally-sensitive acres west of County Road 419 and north of the Orange County line.
But Seminole’s seven-member planning and zoning commission dealt the latest blow to the project after voting unanimously to recommend county commissioners reject the project. This follows a recent county staff analysis that showed the project would be detrimental to the environment, clog existing roads, require the county to spend taxpayer money on utilities and wouldn’t fit in with the surrounding rural area. The entire 670-acre property is zoned for one home for every 5 acres. About half of the property is wetlands.
“I personally think that this is way too dense for this area,” Rob Wolf, a planning and zoning commissioner, said at the end of a nearly six-hour meeting. “This is a nice project. But I do believe that this is money driven and not in the best interest for Seminole County.”
Dorworth shot back: “I didn’t realize that being a capitalist is a bad thing.”
The development plan now moves to the Aug. 14 meeting of county commissioners, who will decide whether to amend Seminole’s comprehensive plan and future land use map to allow the development project to move forward. County commissioners, however, are not required to follow the staff’s report nor the planning and zoning board’s recommendation.
More than 300 people attended the meeting Wednesday night, many wearing lime green shirts that read: “Save Rural Seminole County.” Nearly four dozen residents spoke against the project. Only one resident spoke in favor of it.
Dorworth’s team called River Cross a “distinctive” and “attractive” community where residents could live and work within the neighborhood, along
with “power walking” on its streets or “kayaking” on the nearby Econ.
They said the development would be less than two miles from the University of Central Florida campus and adjacent to Central Florida Research Park and provide the rapidly-growing area with affordable housing and job opportunities.
Attorney Tara Tedrow, who is representing Dorworth’s application, described it as “a walkable community that is self-contained, so that you have different employment opportunities and different housing opportunities of different levels and different economic ranges.”
Even so, the development application doesn’t say whether any employers have committed to setting up shop within the River Cross community, according to the staff report.
Because the development would include affordable housing, it would benefit the overall county, Tedrow said.
“This isn’t just a public welfare issue,” she said. “This is best for the community.”
In 2004, Seminole voters approved a ballot measure that established a strict rural boundary mostly east of the Econ, Oviedo and Lake Jesup. The River Cross property sits within that protected rural boundary. Densities in that rural area are limited to between one home per 3 acres and one home per 10 acres.
Tedrow cautioned that courts have said that local governments that have “exclusionary zoning practices” — such as Seminole’s rural boundary — which “impede integration are unlawful” and can have “racially discouraging effects.” In other words, large areas that do not allow more than one home per acre can undermine or prevent the construction of affordable housing and racial integration.
“I’m not telling you that anybody did anything intentional when this boundary was created. That is not my contention,” she said. But “the county is required to provide affordable housing and racial integration because it receives federal housing money.”
Michael Rich of Chuluota said “taxpayers will get stuck with the bill” if River Cross is approved because it will require the county to widen nearby roads, extend water and sewer lines to the property, install stormwater infrastructure, hire more public safety employees and build new schools.
“Planning is about long-term thinking,” he told commissioners. “Because if you don’t do it right, it will cost a lot of money to fix all this. Your job is to save the taxpayers’ dollars by doing it right.” James Miller of Geneva agreed. “Why would you want to put a development like this in that area?” he said. “It doesn’t make any sense … It’s a great project that belongs in a place where there are already roads. Where there are already schools, and where it can maintain the influx of people.”
Board member Carrissa Lawhun said east Seminole is the wrong spot for River Cross.
“I love the project,” she said. “But in this location there are serious financial implications for the county and for the people that live in that area.”