Additional Winter Park Village apartments approved

Moments after debating whether 5 percent of new housing should be affordable in the city, the Winter Park City Commission voted to allow a 204-unit apartment building across from the Winter Park Village.

The project passed 4-1 on second reading, with Commissioner Carolynn Cooper dissenting.

Though the four-story building would not be designated as affordable workforce housing, the building had become a lightning rod of discussion for competing visions of Winter Park.

Mayor Ken Bradley said that the building would add to the balance of the city’s other developments and historic neighborhoods.

Cooper said that it would be the first development of its kind in the city’s history.

“We’ve never had more than 25 units per acre density in Winter Park,” Cooper said, noting that the proposed building would be several times that size.

Resident Barbara Hovanetz said that it would lead to bad traffic in the area, and could set a precedent for future builders.

“I don’t want people to feel that they can change from 3-4 stories just because they do a fancy demonstration for it,” Hovanetz said.

Attorney Rebecca Wilson, representing the builder, Winter Park Town Center Development LLC, said that traffic is proven to decrease from a property when it’s changed from commercial to residential. She did not comment on whether traffic decreased when an empty lot becomes a 204-unit apartment building.

What commissioners agreed on was that though it would tower over nearby homes across Denning Drive, it would not be the tallest building on the block. That honor goes to a project approved for a joint CNL/Bankfirst building project in the old state office building south of the apartment building.