Apopka approves makeover for Errol Estate, its largest district

Errol Estate, Apopka’s largest community, will get a sweeping makeover under redevelopment plans approved by the City Council.

The plans call for new homes, a water park and a redesign of the Errol Estate Golf Course, which closed months ago because of mounting losses.

“For many, many years in Apopka, Errol was ‘it,’ ” said Mayor Joe Kilsheimer, whose four-year term as the city’s elected executive ends at noon April 24.

His imminent departure is part of a council makeover next week that will be complete with the swearing in of Mayor-elect Bryan Nelson along with new council members Alice Nolan and Alexander Smith, all of whom were recently elected.

In one of its final major decisions, the current council approved plans for Errol Estate submitted by Celebrationbased Signature H Property Group at a special meeting held last week at the Apopka Community Center.

The council chambers were too small to accommodate anticipated crowds. More than 400 people turned out for an earlier discussion of the plan.

Developers, hoping to connect Errol’s fragmented neighborhoods, proposed adding recreation trails, parks and other facilities for social events.

The redevelopment of Errol will add 261 residential units, including single-family homes and townhouses, a 180-unit senior adult living facilities and four redesigned holes on the historic golf course’s rolling acres.

The developers also propose to build a new clubhouse/boutique hotel called the Staghorn Club and Lodge that will feature a 40-room lodge.

Work crews with backhoes and other machinery have cleared about two dozen trees and other dead wood cluttering the shuttered course and neighboring properties since Hurricane Irma blew through the community in September.

“We’re ready to go with a plan in place,” Helmut Wyzisk III, vice president of Signature H, said during his presentation to the council, which won applause from spectators — many wearing blue shirts to show their support for the project.

The developers earned backing from residents by holding more than 100 community meetings since it first unveiled its plan about two years ago.

Some opposed the plan because they will lose golfcourse views with the planned reconfiguration of four holes on the 18-hole championship links.

But neighbors urged them to back the plan anyway.

“I know there are residents here who feel they’re not getting a fair deal, but they need to look at the bigger picture,” res-