One of the nation’s largest for-profit developers of affordable housing hit a snag this week in its effort to build an apartment complex in Tavares.
Dominium, which has built several workforce and senior apartment communities in Orange and Osceola counties, sought authorization from Lake County Commissioners to apply for mortgage revenue bonds for a proposed 192-unit multifamily residential community at the southern edge of Lake Saunders.
The community, planned on just under 10 acres north of Old U.S. Highway 441, would exclusively serve households making less than 60% of the area median income.
During Tuesday’s commission meeting, Tavares City Manager John Drury said the City Council annexed the property and rezoned it for multifamily development after the previous developer agreed to a condition that it would contain only market-rate housing. “What is being asked before you today is to go to low-income housing, and low-income housing restricts the tenants there…” he said. “This is inconsistent with what they told the city council when they received approval.”
Drury argued that Dominium should present its plan to the Tavares City Council again before seeking county approval.
“Our ask is that before you approve this low-income housing project on a development that committed to not do that, that you would ask them to come to the city council, explain why they’re doing their switch, and get the council’s input,” he said. “Then you would have all the information you need to make an informed decision of what the city council believes and what the residents in the area believe is good for this project.”
Dominium development associate Ryan Summerwill told county officials their development would be a workforce community and that Dominium was not involved in the project when the previous developer made its market-rate promise. “So I’d love to take a look at the language about the market rate commitment to make sure that we’re all on the same page. So I apologize for the discrepancy there.”
Commission Chair Leslie Campione said the income level of the tenants is less of a concern than communication with Tavares city officials during the application process.
“I want to be clear that we’re not against providing housing for low-income residents,” she said. “It’s the location, it’s the process, it’s the fact that it was represented completely differently to the city council of Tavares. That’s just simply not the right way to go about doing things.”
Conditions like the one attached to the Tavares property could soon be illegal. The Florida Legislature is considering changes to the Live Local Act (SB-1730/HB-943) that would prohibit cities and counties from making zoning or land use decisions based on whether a project is affordable.
With funding authorization and approval back down to discussions with Tavares, Dominium VP Devon Quist shared a looming June 1 deadline for county and city officials to decide whether the project will be allowed to move forward. The Minneapolis-based developer typically finances its projects using a combination of 4% Low Income Housing Tax Credits, loans and tax-exempt bonds from Florida Housing Finance Corp.
If Dominium fails to submit its bond application by June 1, the project would be ineligible for that money for at least a year.
“This isn’t like a full approval on doing the project or not, this is just asking do we want to continue to take a step in the right direction,” Quist said. “Because if we have to wait a year and we miss that June 1 deadline, then the project would certainly be on more of a life support phase. We totally intend to continue to have conversations but just didn’t want to be precluded from moving forward on this project due to a one-year wait to get those (tax-free) bonds.”
Dominium is applying for the bonds through the Polk County Housing Authority because Lake County doesn’t have a housing authority.
Commissioner Kirby Smith confirmed that an initially denied approval does not preclude Dominium and the city of Tavares from working out a deal before the June 1 deadline.
“I would make the assumption anyway that, if it’s denied today and then the city of Tavares says ‘okay, go forward’, that they would talk to the bond people in Polk County and say ‘we’ll bring it back’,” he said. “I would leave it up to Tavares.”
Summerwill and Quist said Dominium will continue discussions with Tavares and Lake County in hopes of bringing its planned development to life.
“We are looking for the ability to pursue financial material that the housing authority is able to provide,” Summerwill said. “We would be more than happy to sit down with [Drury] and the rest of the team to talk through the project and proposal.”
If the project wins approval, it wouldn’t be the first rent-restricted community in the area. In 2022, Lake Commissioners approved a rezoning request from Atlantic Housing Partners for a mixed-income community at 1757 Bay Rd. overlooking Lake Saunders. The project will contain 165 apartments and 10 single-family homes, each with an attached garage apartment, known as an accessory dwelling unit (ADU).
Have a tip about Central Florida development? Contact me at jwilkins@orlandosentinel.com or 407-754-4980. Follow GrowthSpotter on Facebook and LinkedIn.
