- March 27, 2024
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SOUTHWEST ORANGE – A community meeting regarding a rezoning request for a proposed 21-townhome project received backlash after residents emphasized the problematic Reams Road.
The request to rezone five acres of currently vacant land from its current zoning of Rural Residential District to Planned Development would allow the construction of a townhome complex named Windermere Springs at 13651 Reams Road.
Although the six residents who attended the meeting had no qualms with the development itself, they repeatedly emphasized the trouble with approving more and more developments: traffic, flooding and the impact on wildlife.
“My problem is that, from what I heard, (the county) is not going to do anything about Reams Road until 2024,” said Bonnie Welcome, a resident at The Preserves in Windermere. “OK, well we’re in 2017, so for six years, we’re going to have all these buildings come in and all these parcels filled in but we already have flooding, even before Irma.
“We’re just getting more and more and nothing’s being done about Reams Road,” Welcome said. “It’s not that we don’t like your community, or that we don’t like townhomes. We just don’t want anything else built until they get that water issue fixed because more pavement means no place for the water to go, so it’ll just keep flowing out onto Reams Road.”
The representative for the developer present at the meeting, Jonathan Huels with the Lowndes law firm, said, assuming it’s approved, construction wouldn’t begin until a year or two from now and that part of the proposed townhouse project includes a dedication for sufficient rights-of-way for the coming Reams Road widening. Furthermore, the developer is to help speed up the process in any way it can, he said.
“Also, in terms of funding, there will be both adequate public-facility payments made and impact fees paid in respect to this project that will be used to pay for the Reams Road expansion,” Huels said. “But it sounds to me like it’s a global issue, and it seems like there’s a solution coming.”
So far, no builder has been selected and won’t be selected until the developer gets further into the process.
Anyone with questions about this proposal may call the county’s case planner, Jason Sorensen, at (407) 836-5602, or email him at [email protected].