Two separate proposed Tangerine developments, a shopping plaza and a self-storage facility, are up for discussion at a community meeting.
The Orange County Planning Division is conducting the meeting on Thursday, August 29, in Johnson Hall of the Tangerine Improvement Society, 7101 Wright Ave., Tangerine, starting at 6 p.m.
One development project regards 5.98 acres for the Tangerine Commercial Plaza, and another involves 3.42 acres for Mount Dora Self Storage. Both sites are on the east side of U.S. Highway 441 and are within the Tangerine Rural Settlement. The properties’ land-use categories are considered for change from “citrus rural district” to “retail commercial.”
The meeting will have a specific seating arrangement per the county’s request. Chairs will be in the middle of the room, and tables and chairs will also be provided at each end of the building – one side for the Tangerine Commercial Plaza, the other for Mount Dora Self Storage.
This layout will allow residents to discuss the two developments with county staff at the same time, according to an email letter from Gary James, president and Development Committee member for the Tangerine Improvement Society.
In the email, James expressed his organization’s position on the projects.
“To be clear, it is the feeling of the Tangerine Improvement Society and its Development Committee to reject both of these commercial development projects,” he wrote. “It sets a precedent for future commercial development that we don’t need!”
The letter further explains that Tangerine already has a strip mall with a Publix Supermarket, where there are still many vacancies, and that a self-storage facility already exists about a mile north of the Mount Dora Self Storage’s proposed site, at the Dudley Avenue/U.S. Highway 441 intersection.
The letter states that the Development Committee members will pass out free tangerine-colored “Smart Growth Keeps Northwest Orange County Rural” items for residents to wear, and also encourages attendees to wear tangerine-colored clothing if they have it.
