In spite of the skepticism that City Council members and some residents expressed over the Errol Estate re-development master plan, the City Council approved the proposal in two separate votes during a special Tuesday, August 22, meeting that lasted three hours at the Apopka Community Center/VFW.
In the first of two motions, the City Council voted 4-1 on submitting the project, called New Errol, to the state Department of Economic Opportunity for review. City Commissioner Kyle Becker voted “no” on the motion.
Once the master plan is sent to the state, the review could take up to 60 days.
In his closing remarks, Becker said he would support New Errol “if this were an emotional response.” However, he doubted New Errol, saying Signature H Property Group, the Celebration real estate developer proposing the plan, never made public their development credentials nor disclosed various design details including the investors’ identity, the property’s value, and who will run the assets to ensure profitability.
“They’re entering a business that they, put in their own language, said is a dying business,” Becker said. “So you have risk on top of the fact that they have no history of these projects.”
In the second motion, the City Council unanimously approved the amendments to future land use of the 79-acre property, on which Signature H intends to construct 261 residential units and a senior-living facility with 180 assisted-living beds and 60 post-acute rehabilitation beds.
In addition, a new golf clubhouse, a community water park, and a 34-room lodge will be among the amenities. The golf course and clubhouse/lodge area will be known as Staghorn Club and Lodge.
Errol’s 18-hole golf course, which has been around for about 45 years, will be redesigned. Four of the current golf holes will be developed with housing, and there will be four new holes.
To better connect the multiple fragmented neighborhoods within Errol Estate, the master plan calls for recreation trails, parks, and facilities for social events.
Signature H’s many partners on New Errol include GAI Consultants, an Orlando engineering firm; Steve Smyers, who is designing the new golf course; and Weller Pools, an Apopka business that is working on the water park.
For more than a year, Signature H has been reaching out to the Errol community, encouraging and getting homeowners’ input, and continually revising the New Errol plan accordingly. Mayor Joe Kilsheimer once hosted a focus group to gain public feedback.
Signature H representatives said the developer will close the golf course on September 4 to begin the project, with the intent of reopening it as New Errol in January 2019.
An Apopka Planning Commission meeting on July 25 about the New Errol project drew about 400 people with the commission unanimously approving the project.
An extended version of this story appears in the Friday, August 25, edition, of The Apopka Chief.
