Teresa Sargeant
Key Points
- The Apopka Development Review Committee postponed approval of the Kelly Park South master plan due to lack of detail on the future commercial area.
- Developers argued the master plan does not require a detailed commercial layout at zoning, but Planning Manager Howell disagreed citing form-based code.
- The plan's approval ties to a $1.6 million funding gap for Kelly Park Road improvements, which developers seek to address through an amended pioneering agreement.
A proposed Kelly Park South master plan amendment will have to return to the Apopka Development Review Committee after city planning staff and the developer disagreed Wednesday over how much detail must be shown for a future commercial area before users are secured.
The DRC reviewed the second submittal of the Kelly Park South Kelly Park Interchange (KPI) master plan amendment alongside a related future land-use amendment. Planning recommended denial of the master plan amendment until outstanding comments are addressed, while the future land-use amendment received a recommendation for approval provided the applicant submits an updated school-capacity report.
“I can’t recommend approval of something that doesn’t show anything,” Planning Manager Bobby Howell said of the proposed commercial area. “It just shows a red square. The question is going to be what’s proposed there.”
Lance Bennett of Pape-Dawson, representing the project, said the developer did not interpret the KPI code as requiring a detailed site plan for nonresidential uses at the zoning stage. Bennett said specific uses and site plans would be identified later. He also noted that an earlier Kelly Park South master plan received city commission approval with commercial development depicted similarly.
Howell said the KPI is governed by a form-based code and maintained that the master plan should include a conceptual layout demonstrating compliance even without specific commercial users. The developers said they do not yet have users lined up and argued layouts could differ substantially depending on whether the property eventually attracts a restaurant, office or other business.
The disagreement took on greater significance because project representatives said the zoning is intertwined with a proposed third amendment to the Kelly Park Road Pioneering Agreement, which funds improvements to Kelly Park Road.
Project representatives said the amendment would address a roughly $1.6 million funding deficiency, with the developers pre-funding the transportation impacts associated with the additional properties.
The developers also discussed an agreement involving Kelly Park Self Storage, which they said controls a missing right-of-way segment needed for the road project. The developers have offered 50,000 cubic yards of excess dirt from the Crossroads properties as part of the arrangement.
Mike Galvin told the DRC he has personally funded $6.75 million in escrow and built $14 million in city roads, adding that the developers had come close to filing litigation against the city.
“It makes no sense that you’re holding up a $25 million road over some comment that we can obviously work through,” Galvin said.
“It’s the process, Mr. Galvin,” Howell responded.
By the end of the discussion, Howell confirmed the commercial layout – along with information about any commercial users the developers have lined up – remained Planning’s outstanding issue with the master plan.