On Thursday, the Orange County Planning & Zoning Commission unanimously voted to recommend denial of a mixed-use project with 4,800 apartments, five hotels, and retail space due to the proposed development’s potential impacts on nearby wetlands and flooding in neighborhoods along the Shingle Creek Basin.
The project is still eligible to go before the Board of County Commissioners, but Thursday’s vote reveals an uphill battle that will be difficult for the development team to overcome.
Geyer Development, LLC, an entity associated with Israeli developer Zari Kovo, applied to rezone nearly 600 acres in the I-Drive corridor from agricultural to Planned Development to allow for 653,400 square feet of commercial space, 1,231 hotel rooms, and 4,814 multifamily dwelling units on 227.5 acres east of Westwood Boulevard.
Less than half of the property is considered buildable. Kovo is seeking to reclassify 22 acres of wetlands as developable land, with most of the wetlands used to build an access road connecting to I-Drive.
A site plan of the Tuscana PD calls for 27 multifamily buildings of varying sizes and five hotels with incorporated commercial and retail space. The hotels would rise to 20 stories, close to the approved height limits of 200 feet for hotel towers. However, the plans also propose multifamily buildings as tall as 150 feet, which would require a waiver from county code and would represent a significant increase from the site’s current 65-foot multifamily height limits.
The site has a future land use of Activity Center Residential (ACR) and Activity Center Mixed Use (ACMU), which allows for high-density tourism-related development and supportive residential uses. However, multiple members of the Planning & Zoning Board said that they wouldn’t support any development on the property, with a preference for preserving the land.
Despite the proposed project’s density, plans from earlier this year called for a larger development program of up to 5,244 multifamily units, 1,631 hotel rooms, and 653,500 square feet of commercial space. That proposal would have also reclassified 58 acres of wetlands as developable land. An application from 2022 requested permission for an even larger project with up to 4,485 hotel rooms, 5,114 multifamily units, and 653,400 square feet of commercial space, but there wasn’t enough support from the county for that proposal to move forward.
Even though the applicants reduced the proposed development program multiple times and committed to protecting more wetlands, widespread concerns remain about the project’s density and potential flooding impacts. The county received 852 emails and letters from concerned community members who were against the project, with only 52 letters in favor.
The Orange County Development Review Committee (DRC) voted 3-2 earlier this month to recommend denial of the project, with committee members concluding that the applicants weren’t doing enough to minimize the impacts to surrounding wetlands. Members of the Planning & Zoning Commission agreed.
“Flooding is a great issue, and I’m very aware of that. We’ve run into a tremendous amount of it,” said Commissioner David Boers, who referred to the proposed project as “an island in the middle of a wetland”.
Commissioner Evelyn Cardenas said that the development would provide much-needed housing in the area, but the proximity to wetlands is a major concern.
“If I didn’t know anything about the property, or the landowners, or anything that has been spoken here, I would say, let’s go ahead and do it. We need it. The people who work on I-Drive and at the convention center need this. But the dissonance for me is the property. It is the wetlands. It is the location of where we’re trying to put this,” she said.
Flooding from Hurricane Ian in 2022 at the Good Samaritan retirement community at Kissimmee Village left 500 homes uninhabitable or destroyed. Some critics argue that high-density developments such as the Tuscana project will only make flooding worse along the Shingle Creek basin.
Land planner and water policy consultant Dan DeLisi of DeLisi Inc., who is working on the project, previously told GrowthSpotter that the development team strongly believes that the project won’t increase flooding risk for area residents.
“State law does not allow for development to create off-site flooding. Our plan not only complies with state law, but it also helps the surrounding area become less susceptible to flooding because modern, innovative techniques will be deployed. We are committed to making this project both environmentally beneficial and compatible with neighboring uses,” DeLisi said, while claiming that the development would actually reduce flooding.
Architecture firm Baker Barrios, surveyor Leading Edge Land Services, environmental engineer Bio-Tech Consulting, and law firm Shutts & Bowen complete the development team.
Kovo is internationally recognized for developing London’s Camden Market, which attracts about 28 million visitors annually. He is also linked to other high-profile projects in Belgium, Hong Kong, and Israel, and once owned the Opa Lacka Flea Market near Miami.
The owner of the land, Shingle Creek Co-Owners LLC, is a conglomerate of 176 property owners that assembled the acreage over several years, including some through land swaps with the South Florida Water Management District. Raj Goyal of Sotheby’s International Realty represents Geyer Development, LLC, which is under contract to purchase the site — contingent on the zoning approval. Listing agent Ray Turchi of Marcus & Millichap represents the ownership group.
Have a tip about Central Florida development? Contact me at (407)607-8160 or TyWilliams@GrowthSpotter.com. Follow GrowthSpotter on Facebook and LinkedIn.
