Ideas flood in to adapt Maitland pond plans

Residents are expected to flood the Maitland City Council Chambers on Monday to hear how local developers plan to smooth over the waves created by their plans to take over three acres of wetlands and fill it in with a retention pond.

Maitland Concourse North developers reworked plans for the retention pond on their property, after residents and Council members raised concerns over the idea of filling in portions of low-grade wetlands along the shoreline of Lake Charity to create the pond.

Developers held a workshop with Maitland City Council members on Nov. 20, and will continue the presentation of their proposal – including reconfigured pond plans – on Monday, Dec. 14. The meeting will serve as a continuance of the first public hearing regarding the plans to build the pond, a 10-acre passive park, 350 multi-family luxury residential units, 150,000 square feet of retail space, and as much as 300,000 square feet of office space on the land that currently is home to the city’s last orange grove.

Project manager Jonathan Martin said the new plans could decrease the amount of wetlands impacted by the pond by one-third, or roughly 100 feet. But developers of the project say that the current wetlands are so low-grade, that the improvements they propose to put in place by building the retention pond will increase water quality and decrease flood risk in the surrounding lakes Faith, Hope and Charity.

“[The pond] is a win for the project, a win for the DOT, a win for the lakefront owners,” said development representative Micky Grindstaff, which garnered a laugh from the majority of the crowd of residents gathered at the Nov. 23 Council meeting to oppose the development.

“Filling in the wetlands for a pond to improve the water quality is an oxymoron, like cutting off your right hand to be ambidextrous,” said Druid Isle homeowner Gerry Merrigan.

Homeowners who live in the lakeshore communities surrounding the proposed Maitland Concourse North development have been outspoken in their resistance toward the project and the impact that it will have on their quiet neighborhoods. The city’s Planning and Zoning Commission also found flaws in the development’s plans, recommending that the City Council vote down the project for not being consistent with the city’s Comprehensive Development Plan.

“They created this development in a vacuum…. They created a beautiful development, but not for our community,” said Lake Faith Condominiums resident Matina Vourvopoulos. “Please protect us.”

Members of the Maitland City Council are scheduled make their first vote on the project on Monday, Dec. 14.