Winter Garden revisits, tables senior-living project

Winter Garden commissioners have once again tabled a proposal for a senior-living facility off Stoneybrook West Parkway.

City leaders revisited plans for the Stoneybrook Senior Living PUD during their March 12 commission meeting. The proposal originally was brought to the commission in October but tabled after pushback from nearby residents.

The senior-living facility would be developed on roughly 10.75 acres located at 12920 and 12921 Reaves Road. The applicant’s request is to annex the property into the city, amend its future land-use designation from Orange County Rural to City MR Medium Density Residential, and rezone it from Orange County A-1 and R-CE-2 to Planned Unit Development.

Plans for the Stoneybrook Senior Living PUD include a three-story, independent-living building and a two-story, assisted-living building, as well as 10 detached, two-car garage buildings. There would be 166 units total.

Residents in the neighboring Foxcrest community voiced their opposition to the project, mainly due to the scale of it.

“I’m not for this and I probably speak the same for others because the place is a monstrosity,” said Foxcrest resident Rick McDowell. “There’s going to be noise, there’s going to be traffic, there’s going to be things we can’t even think of right now.”

Fellow residents agreed, with some saying they weren’t necessarily concerned with the property use but rather the building heights. 

“I don’t think people are too concerned with the development of the site, necessarily, but the scope,” said resident Keith Jones. “You’re talking something 45 to 50 feet high (and) the noise associated with that type of project. At this point in the planning, have any concessions been made to the footprint of the building or the size of it?

“I’m a little concerned that more concessions haven’t been made,” Jones said. “I think you guys are getting a theme of what we’re saying — take it under consideration to scale it back a little … so it’s not visible from our road and our cul-de-sac.”

City Manager Mike Bollhoefer said that when the project initially came to staff, 220 units were proposed. Since then, he added, both the square footage and the total number of units have been reduced.

“My concern is if something like this isn’t built, you could get something you really don’t like there,” Commissioner Bob Buchanan told the residents. 

Owner/applicant Allan Bradley of The Huber Group said the need for senior-living options only is increasing as the population ages, adding that the elderly will account for most of Florida’s population and growth in the years to come.

“This is a huge growing market, a huge growing segment of people,” Bradley said. “It’s a new need that we haven’t seen in the past. I think the nursing homes of the ’80s and ’90s look vastly different than what we’re seeing today. … These are needs, and we look at this very seriously.”

Bradley added that the three-story part of the Stoneybrook Senior Living plans came about by trying to strike a balance with economic feasibility and nearby environmental conservation.

“Three stories don’t necessarily work well in the increasing age levels, but (is done) in hoping to preserve so much of the natural habitat that is on this site while still trying to balance with that a good unit mix that makes economic sense,” Bradley said.

City leaders asked Bradley if he and his team would be willing to draw up some concepts with only two-story buildings, to which he obliged. Commissioners voted 4-1 to table the proposal again until the March 26 commission meeting, during which Bradley will present the alternate concepts.