Winter Park City Commission meeting set for June 25, 2018

Winter Park City Commissioners will take a vote at their June 25 meeting on the subdivision of a property at 1298 Howell Branch Road – making way for four single-family homes instead of a controversial memory care facility project. 

Property owner Villa Tuscany Holdings LLC previously proposed a memory care facility for the property at 1298 Howell Branch Road, but residents expressed concerns with incoming traffic from medical care providers and visitors. Locals also believed the facility was incompatible with the nearby neighborhoods.

After several iterations of that project were presented and sent back for adjustments because of  scale and variances, Villa Tuscany Holdings LLC opted to subdivide the property instead to make way for four single-family homes.

“Obviously in terms of traffic generation, even the memory care was significantly less in terms of the use,” Winter Park Planning Manager Jeff Briggs said during a Planning and Zoning Board meeting on June 5. “This is even further reduced in terms of the number of trips that will be generated. This, I believe, is a good outcome for the controversy that has involved this property in the past. We’re not getting multi-family R-3 development; we’re getting single-family homes.” 

The subdivision of the lot came as a relief to local residents, who preferred to see the single-family homes to the originally proposed memory-care facility.