Petition Against New Apartments Reaches Milestone In Horizon West

A proposed apartment complex wedged between Avalon Road and 429 is facing fierce resistance from Horizon West residents. The land is currently zone for a 645-bed dormitory, which was originally intended for a sports academy. Now developers are proposing a 350-unit apartment complex on the same land. Residents have started a petition opposing the apartments, which at time of writing has over 650 signatures.

One significant component of the request is changing the required distance to 429 from 75 feet to only 25 feet. Commissioner Betsy Vanderley stated to the West Orange Observer she does not yet have an opinion on the project and has an open mind. However, she recently told the Orange Observer that this project is a downgrade and it is not the County’s job to determine what is needed or not, but only if it adheres to the future land use map.

Residents however have not had the same view, as an apartment complex has substantially larger usage of county resources compared to dorms for a sports complex. Two of the largest issues in Horizon West, school overcrowding and traffic congestion, would worsen with apartments but would only be minimally affected by students in a sports academy dormitory.

With such large push back by residents, it begs the question if a moratorium on approving new development should be implemented. The Orlando Sentinel reported that Clermont implemented a 6-month moratorium on new apartment development approvals to allow the city to catch up on planning and design. Osceola County implemented a 6-month moratorium on all new development in 2018. St. Augustine is also facing issues and there are now calls for a moratorium.  The Wall Street Journal just published an in-depth article on Lake Wylie, South Carolina, which implemented a 16-month moratorium due to the population tripling over the past 20 years, which the large majority occurred from people moving from other states, similar to Horizon West.

If you have an opinion on the new apartments, there is a public hearing scheduled for February 11 and we encourage you to contact District 1 Commissioner Betsy VanderLey. If you oppose the apartments, you may want to consider signing the petition in addition to directly contacting the Commissioner.

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If you receive a public hearing notice or zoning change request in the mail, please share it in the Horizon West Development Discussion Group.