Please send an email to mayorandcommissioners@cityofwinterpark.org expressing support for the Orange Avenue Overlay.
Two of our commissioners have been publicly poo-pooing the Orange Avenue Overlay up Monday, January 13, 2020 for the first of two city commission votes required to make the changes official. In addition to being inappropriate under the Sunshine Law, such poo-pooing has been filled with inaccuracies.
The reality of the overlay is that it will keep the total residential units allowable under current code across the 75 acre area the same as exists today at 17 units per acre, but will allow consolidation of this density for two significant property owners, one at each end of the overlay corridor. That is, residential units may be transferred from some properties onto others.
The overlay provides an incentive to build sufficient residential concentration at each end to establish the Orange Ave corridor as a complement to Park Avenue and Hannibal Square, that is, to create a sense of place compatible with the best qualities of Winter Park’s downtown areas, including expanded green space as well as new park land.
The overlay plan as been the subject of years of public input and planning that has garnered the support of prominent “anti-development” voices but some naysayers continue to fight it with false claims, petty resentments, and purely emotional arguments.
One commissioner recently sent an email promoting “Transit Oriented Development” while poo-pooing the overlay. This position is completely irrational as transit oriented development would actually involve residential densities more than twice what is proposed in the overlay, as much as 75 units per acre. Talk about confusing!
Please take a minute to review the overlay documents and send an email to mayorandcommissioners@cityofwinterpark.org supporting this change.
Regards, Pete Weldon
Pete,
WP has a bizarre comp plan that encourages strip centers/office buildings with seas of parking lots. Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, WP Village, former state office building at Morse/Denning ,etc., are examples of bizarre comp plan structures that would benefit with parking garages. Let’s try the overlay. It’s intent is to be creative within a smaller, greener footprint that encourages people to live, work, play within a small area rather than driving to work, then driving somewhere else for dinner then driving a 3rd place to go home. Let’s give people the chance.