Winter Park office building project tabled

A project off of U.S. 17-92 that would add a two-story office building and a 104-space parking lot just a stone's throw away from residential homes in Winter Park will need some potential tweaks and changes before it has a chance of becoming a reality.

That was the decision that Winter Park City Commissioners and developers V3 Capital Group LLC landed on during the commission's Monday, March 25, meeting — the result of many nearby residents expressing concerns about the size of the building and the project bringing in additional cut-through traffic.

The building would sit on a cluster of four lots — two of which would be rezoned from residential (R-3) to office (O-2) to match the other two lots. Qualms with the project focused primarily on the parking lot, because it would connect Gay Road and Trovillion Avenue to the south.

Residents feared the configuration would create that unwanted route for more cut-through traffic within the residential area as drivers try to avoid the intersection of Lee Road and U.S. 17-92. 

Trey Vick of V3 Capital Group LLC said his team will continue to communicate with residents to find a compromise, adding that the connection between Gay Road and Trovillion through the parking lot could possibly be removed.

FRDAP GRANT ISSUE RESOLVED

City Manager Randy Knight told the Winter Park City Commission that an issue between the city and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection — regarding violating the terms of a FRDAP grant — has been resolved. 

The resolution was agreed upon following FDEP warning the city of violating the terms of a $100,000 FRDAP grant acquired in 1994 to improve Martin Luther King, Jr. Park — the green space that soon will contain the city’s new $30 million Winter Park Canopy project. 

That grant — which helped pay for dredging the lake at the center of the park, adding playing fields and establishing walking trails — was under the condition that the park would remain outdoor recreational space, according to a letter sent by FDEP to the city Wednesday, Jan. 16.

That letter from Community Assistance Consultant Angela Bright of the FDEP states building a project that expands beyond the footprint of the existing Rachel D. Murrah Civic Center — a building that was grandfathered in with the 1994 grant and set be demolished to make way for the Winter Park Canopy — would encroach into the park land that falls under the grant and violate the terms.

According to a new letter from FDEP dated March 15, the city and the department have agreed on new boundaries within the park that define that northwest corner of the park as “non-outdoor recreational” and the rest of the park as “outdoor recreational.”

In exchange for this change, the city has agreed to dedicate a recently acquired piece of property at 2917 Temple Trail — next to the acquired Howell Branch Preserve — as "outdoor recreational."