EDGEWATER DRIVE SPECIAL PLAN AMENDMENT

On Tuesday, December 16th, the recommendations of the "Edgewater Drive Vision Task Force" were presented to the Municipal Planning Board of the City of Orlando. Apparently these plans were approved and will be forwarded to City Council for their January 12th meeting, most likely simply on the consent agenda. You should be able to see these documents by clicking on the links in the email.

I tried to actively monitor the workings of the Task Force over the past year and for the most part did. If you look at the final report you will find that for the most part it simply restates long held ideas and dreams for College Park's Downtown District. However I am very concerned about what is "between the lines" and the lack of formal notice that is being given to property owners concerning this issue. I am specifically concerned about the "Urban Form" section of the recommendations. You can see them at the link above and I have copied them below:

•Preserve property rights of businesses and land-owners along Edgewater Drive and adjacent neighborhood environs based on existing “by-right” zoning intensities and densities.
•Manage future growth (density bonuses, master plans, conditional uses, Planned Development rezoning, etc.) through a long-term vision for plausible building envelopes so that development proposals can be assessed to fit into a larger vision.
•Incorporate appropriate transitions between the residential neighborhood and activities along Edgewater Drive to reduce monotony and provide opportunities for compatible development.
•Respect and protect the residential neighborhoods, especially those zoned exclusively for single family uses, to reduce the possibilities of commercial intrusion into the neighborhood.
•Encourage a mix of uses along the corridor to create an environment conducive to living all stages of live (retirement, empty nesters, families, singles, students, and children) and provide short trips to offices, services, restaurants and shopping.

If you have now read that section you are probably beginning to think that I am over reacting here. That all sounds really good and what College Park wants.
The problem is that there are conflicts in the statements themselves - you can not accomplish the first three bulletin points because of that conflict. What I was hoping would happen is that the Task Force would resolve these conflicts - instead they have been dis banned and left the job of resolving the conflicts to City Hall with little or no input from the College Park community.

If you look at the actual "Presentation Board" on the website that lists these goals you will see a graphic in the upper right hand corner. The graphic has various colors and "T" notations. This gets a little technical here but is the "technicality" that could allow the City to permit a seven story building on an R-1 lot (what College Park does not want).

The City is planning on getting this "concept" passed and then come back and define the "details" - and the devil is in the details.

The next step or steps will be to give definitions to these "T" notations on the map. They will be called Transects and each of the numbers will represent differing height and density rights. Then the existing "Edgewater Drive Special Plan" will be modified in at least two respects - one to include the new Transects and two to expand the boundaries of the special plan. Thusly the City will have changed the "by right" zoning and intensities for our neighborhood and resolving the conflicts in the policy statement that was approved.

All possibly with out notice to property owners and citizen input.

This has been an important issue to our community for years and this does not appear to me to be a reasonable approach. Please share this blog with anyone that you know in College Park - especially property owners on or NEAR Edgewater Drive.