Despite residents raising traffic safety concerns, the Apopka City Council voted unanimously to adopt changing a mixed-use development’s plan so thousands of acres of commercial outparcel could be added to the premises.
The planned development amendment would convert Lot 6 of the Shoppes at East Shore from a stormwater pond to a commercial outparcel, adding 5,000 square feet of commercial space to the development and allowing tire sales to take place.
The Shoppes at East Shore is a proposed 28-acre mixed-use development with commercial and senior housing components located at the northeast corner of Ocoee Apopka Road and West Keene Road. The project would include a senior age-restricted housing component for a 55-plus community.
The project’s original planned development agreement was approved in November 2023.
Resident Ian Kimbrell raises concerns about the development’s impact on water resources, specifically the removal of a retention pond for reclaimed water, as well as traffic safety at the Ocoee Apopka Road/Keene Road intersection.
“Again, here we are waiting for the problem to exist, rather than get ahead of it and get in the road situation taken care of,” Kimbrell said. “That intersection backs up like crazy.”
Resident Sylvester Hall suggested starting a workshop to proactively address development issues and infrastructure needs before they become critical problems.
“Are we going to keep being incompetent and just approving development without doing anything?” Hall asked. “It’s sad to hear residents come up and voice this, and when they sit down, you guys are like, they didn’t say anything.”
Commissioner Nadia Anderson said she nearly got into an accident while recently visiting the site of the proposed development and asked project applicant Jonathan Huels about the area’s safety.
“I do have some major concerns about the safety and the incoming development that’s coming to that area,” she said. “I don’t think the infrastructure is actually adequate, and I am really concerned about it.”
Project applicant Jonathan Huels reiterated that the Shoppes at East Shore has undergone extensive review and approval, and the stormwater management system meets all required criteria.
At its Aug. 20 meeting, the City Council approved the first reading of the Shoppes at East Shore’s planned development amendment.
Huels said that the road improvements, including signalization, will be completed before any certificate of occupancy is issued, and the total cost of these improvements is over $1 million.
Huels said that so much was involved in the collaboration with the city on the Shoppes at East Shore that included abiding with city code on the infrastructure.
“It’s not a carte blanche, approved, go on your way [process],” he said. “It took a long time to work through those issues and come up with a framework that was workable and achieve the goals that the city had, which was that section of road is unsafe in its current form, and it needed to be changed.”