Hello Alliance Members,
Just a reminder that there is an important meeting this Thurs Oct 20th at 6:30pm held at Lake Nona High School. PLEASE try to attend!
This meeting is to discuss updating the Narcoossee Corridor Policies to try to get them back in line of what was planned 4 yrs ago. It’s VERY important to get residents to attend this meeting to show your concerns about the current policies and this is your one chance to give input. Originally the County wanted to hold 4 meetings again – but residents asked for one meeting for input, and then a follow up meeting a few weeks later to find out what the County will propose.
History:
Back in 2007 residents met at 4 community meetings to discuss plans for the portion of the rural settlement on the east side of Narcoossee Rd between Tyson Rd and Kirby Smith. The idea was to allow low impact 2 story Professional Office on the first 300-400 feet of land closest to Narcoossee Rd since the road was going to 6 lanes and there is now development across the street.
The back portion of this land was supposed to remain rural, and there was supposed to be a road (almost like a small service rd) parallel to Narcoossee that would divide the rural area from the Office Space, and would connect residents to both Tyson Rd and Kirby Smith without having driveways and mailboxes directly on 6 lane Narcoossee Rd.
Since then – the adopted policies have changed so much that developers are trying to put in 4 story commercial buildings, hotels, and apartments. They are also trying to develop all the way back to the lake – leaving only wetlands to fulfill their “rural” requirements.
Several key members of the Hart Whippoorwill Community and the President of our Alliance and myself all met with our Dist 4 Commissioner Thompson and Staff this summer to ask for some changes to the policies and completion of other policies so that we can finally quit fighting everything that comes forward as proposed new development.
Our Commissioner agreed to this and said she remembers some of the original vision. After they get this resident input, then her office will work with staff to create an amendment to try to get the policies back in line with the original vision.
If the policies are changed - this will not impact developers that have already been approved – but this would impact future plans and stop previous plans from stretching even farther.
We need to stay focused at the meeting to the specific topics that we can impact.
Here are the 6 key things we discussed:
- More land needs to be left inside the rural settlement next to the lake. Discussions of a minimum of 33%, 2 acres, or 300 ft from the lake - whichever is the largest.
- C-1 uses must be restricted to same list of uses approved for Tyson’s Corner. (Staff knows what is on this list and we have copies)
- NO Multi-Family ! (apts, townhomes etc.)
- Height should only be 2 stories (maybe 3 in certain cases by the rd) and Mass only 10,000 – 15,000 Sq Ft
- Building Architecture – similar to what is proposed for Windermere Rural Settlement Main Street (Commissioner knows this) and what was originally promised.
- Access Rd – difficult because of the current layout of parcels. The only thing we could try to request on this is that the connections between parcels should be within the first 300 ft closest to Narcoossee so it actually connects the offices – and does not encourage sprawl towards the lake.
Thanks for making an effort to attend this important meeting!
Suzanne Arnold
Alliance Communications Chairperson
