The Planning Commission’s Tuesday, March 14, meeting agenda is quite light, with only one item up for recommended approval: the final development plan for Qorvo’s site expansion.
The site plan proposes adding a new three-story, 36,900 square-foot office building. The plan also proposes an additional 114 parking spaces, bringing the total on-site parking to 560 spaces. According to information in the meeting agenda packet, that number exceeds the city code-required 522 parking spaces.
Qorvo, a designer and manufacturer of technology solutions for the defense and wireless communication industries, has offices on South Orange Blossom Trail in Apopka.
Last December, the City Council approved an economic incentive package with the state of Florida and Orange County to assist Qorvo in its growth that includes not only the facility expansion, but also the creation of 100 new high-paying jobs within the city. Furthermore, the package would provide more than half a million dollars in tax reductions to Qorvo.
Many of the 100 jobs Qorvo expects to create will be engineering positions that would pay an average of $84,000 per year.
Qorvo approached the city with the request to reduce the impact fee cost. On February 1, the City Council was scheduled to vote on absorbing the impact fees; however, because no one on the council motioned to vote, the action failed.
At the February 1 City Council meeting, City Administrator Glenn Irby said the city can’t waive Qorvo’s impact fee, which total $102,773.25.
New residential and commercial developments are charged impact fees for city services to help pay for capital improvements due to growth.
The Qorvo final development plan will be heard at the Wednesday, March 15, City Council meeting at 7 p.m. in City Hall.
An updated version of this story will be published in the Friday, March 17, print edition of The Apopka Chief.
