Ravaudage on horizon

A big development may change the streetscape between Winter Park and Maitland if developer Dan Bellows gets his way. But officials in both cities have mixed emotions about the potential mixed-use project that could bisect the two cities and potentially bring new residents and new businesses to the area.

The tongue-twisting Ravaudage development had been proposed nearly a decade ago, but one element was missing: the land to build upon.

Over the ensuing years, the Ravaudage project swallowed up more than 100 properties at the northwest corner of Winter Park, at the intersection of Lee Road and U.S. Highway 17/92. Most of the proposed development would happen in unincorporated Orange County.

At the Dec. 13 Winter Park City Commission meeting, the Commission grappled with Bellows’ attorney, Kim Booker, about how long the city would extend a deadline to de-annex five acres of city-owned property so that the entire property would fall under the jurisdiction of Orange County.

“What we’re asking for is the entitlement to a four-year extension like any other developer would get,” Booker said. The Commission eventually voted to extend the deadline by one year, in a first reading of an ordinance Dec. 13.

Some commissioners said they feared that a competing vision between Winter Park’s development codes and those of Orange County could lead to a development that the city doesn’t want.

In Maitland, the City Council differed on how to handle a project that wouldn’t occur within the city, but would have big impacts on its economy.

“We have a great opportunity to go through this process while he’s (Bellows) doing it,” Mayor Doug Kinson said. “The worst thing to do is sit on our hands.”

Maitland Councilman Phil Bonus said that the city should work with Bellows before it’s too late.

“We’ve got to embrace guys like Bellows, not stand on morals and say this isn’t how we do it here,” he said.

Winter Park Mayor Ken Bradley had similar sentiments about being proactive about shaping the development.

“The worst case would be…they could build 20-story buildings there,” Bradley said, speaking about if the development were to take full advantage of Orange County building codes. “I think our de-annexation agreement gives us more control over the properties.”

Winter Park would likely re-annex the property later on to take advantage of tax revenues in the revitalized area. But that would depend upon the development living up to its promises.

Renderings of towering residential and commercial buildings, walled with endless expanses of glass, show an area transformed from what’s currently along the northwest corner of the intersection of Lee Road and U.S. 17/92. The land currently occupying the unincorporated space between Winter Park and Maitland is mostly filled with modest single-family homes and some small businesses.

Bellows’ company already owns much of the land upon which the proposed development would stand. Monday night he and his attorneys simultaneously pleaded with officials in two cities to allow him to move a step closer to going forward with development.

In the path of Ravaudage, lie a car dealership, an iconic Winter Park bar and a neighborhood full of homes.

“There are some businesses like that Cash Register on 17/92 who are still waiting for their million dollar payouts to sell,” Winter Park development director Jeff Briggs said, continuing, “We’re talking about distressed single-family properties owned by investors who are holding out.”

In the meantime, both cities are waiting on Orange County to amend its comprehensive plan to rezone the area in question.

“None of us realized the time involved in the Orange County bureaucracy,” Briggs said.