Maitland approves long debated mixed-use development

A debate that started on Monday night and ended early Tuesday morning inside of Maitland’s City Council Chambers ended with a hotly contested mixed-use development project being approved to replace the city’s last orange grove.

Maitland Concourse North was voted through with a 4-1 vote by the Maitland City Council. The project will place a 10-acre passive park, 350 multi-family luxury residential units, 150,000 square feet of retail space, and as much as 30,000 square feet of office space long the banks of lakes Hope, Faith and Charity and bordering Maitland Boulevard.

Discussions regarding the project have spanned over four months, tens of hours and six City Council hearings. On Monday night alone, the Council heard from 28 residents and weighed the pros and cons of the development for nearly seven hours.

“I just don't want you to approve it because you're sick of talking about it,” said resident Susan Lukasik.

Former city councilman Jeff Flowers exclaimed, “Hallelujah! A vote is near.”

The most debated element of the project wasn’t any of the proposed buildings, but a planned retention pond that as originally proposed would have destroyed 3 acres of wetlands along the bank of Lake Charity. On Monday, the City Council agreed on an alternative option presented that would place three smaller ponds on the property, impacting no more than .56 acres of wetlands.

Residents were vocal on both sides of the issue, splitting between those in favor of the opportunities the new development would bring to the city, and others arguing that the development doesn’t comply with the city’s Comprehensive Development Plan or the surrounding residential scale and character.

“It is not feasible, sensible or responsible for the city approve the plans tonight,” said resident Linda Brenner, citing inconsistencies with the development plans and the neighborhood it’s being built in the middle of.

Meanwhile, former mayor Doug Kinson expressed the opposite, saying this development is just what Maitland needs.

“I see this as a huge benefit to our neighborhoods,” Kinson said. “…This is the right project at the right time.”

In the end, in a vote that came in at just before 2 a.m. on Tuesday, the Maitland City Council voted in favor of the project, with Councilwoman Joy Goff-Marcil dissenting.

The approval came with a long list of conditions, including mandatory lakeshore maintenance, increased buffering between the new development and existing developments, and the installation of guardrails or protective curbs along the western access road to prevent vehicles from leaving the road and entering the wetlands or pond.

City Attorney Cliff Shepard told the City Council members throughout their discussions that he was preparing to have to defend the city in court from either side of the issue, whether they approved it or not. Forty-eight hours post-decision, he said he hadn’t heard any murmurs of legal action from those opposed to the development.

Shepard said the city’s decision fell in a gray area, over an issue that was not black and white. He said it is a matter of interpretation whether the project complied with the city’s Comprehensive Development Plan, and that courts tend to side with the city as to how its chooses to interpret its own codes.

“It’s a very close call,” Shepard said. “And generally, how they say in baseball, the tie goes to the runner … here the tie usually goes to the city.”