Planning Commission approves New Errol redevelopment project

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The Apopka Planning Commission unanimously green-lighted the rezoning and the master plan for the New Errol redevelopment project that developers and homeowners alike hope will salvage the golf course property from permanent closure.

The Planning Commission voted 7-0 to recommend approval to the City Council Tuesday, March 20, at a special public hearing at the Apopka Community Center/VFW. Many members of the public who showed up in the hundreds, applauded upon the board reaching its decision.

Some advocates of the New Errol project wore T-shirts to display their support.

New Errol has a proposed 261 residential units with several amenities intended to revitalize the Errol Estates golf-course community located off Errol Parkway north of U.S. Highway 441 on the west side of Apopka. Celebration real estate developer Signature H Property Group has already spent more than $2.5 million on the project.

The golf course portion of Errol Estate has been losing between $50,000 and $60,000 per month in operations, but has been closed for the past several months.

Besides the 261 residential homes, New Errol’s proposal also includes a new golf course, a new clubhouse/lodge area Staghorn Club and Lodge with a 40-room lodge, a community water park, and a senior campus in the form of two adult living facilities with 90 beds each and one building with a 60-bed post-acute rehabilitation center.

At the meeting, current Errol residents learned about how neighborhoods A through H would be developed, as well as their sizes and what buildings and facilities would get built in each section.

Though a few residents mentioned their reservations about the New Errol project such as its impact on traffic and holding Signature H accountable in bringing the project to fruition, homeowners mostly favored it due to its potential in enhancing the golf course, raising housing values and bolstering the local economy.

Though New Errol has been in the works for two years now, it has gone through several levels of government review including the City Council, which approved the plan, the rezoning of Errol Estate, and transmittal to the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity on August 22, 2017.

The state approved the plan, and sent it back to the city for review.

Now that the Planning Commission approved the rezoning, the New Errol project will go before the Apopka City Council for a first reading on Tuesday, March 27, and a second reading on Wednesday, April 11.

Both special public hearings will take place at the Apopka Community Center/VFW, 519 S. Central Ave., starting at 5:30 p.m.

The full story appears on page 1A of the Friday, March 23, issue of The Apopka Chief