It was intended to create 14,000 jobs and jumpstart development activity within Mount Dora’s long-planned employment district along State Road 435 with nearly 1,800 residential units and 950,000 square feet of commercial space.
But after a six-hour discussion Tuesday that ended just shy of midnight, the City Commission rejected the mixed-use proposal by Amco Development due to the height of the buildings.
The developer had originally proposed to go up as high as 350 feet on the 33-acre site within the vacant Wolf Branch Innovation District but had scaled it down to 197 feet, without losing density, ahead of the final vote in response to opposition from residents who packed council chambers.
“We have actively tried to be as accommodating and adaptable as possible to any request that has come across,” Aaron Hakim, Amco’s land developer told the commission, later adding, “I have truly done everything that I feel we are able to do to still make this sustainable. I’m not able to reduce it lower than the number I gave you. That’s the limit.”
It was still too tall for the majority of commissioners to accept as they voted 5-2 to deny the project. With the denial, Hakim said his company would try to get approval from Lake County for a similar-sized project on adjacent property they own that hasn’t been annexed into the city.
“We are too heavily invested to walk away from this,” Hakim said.
When the city and county conceptualized the 830-acre Wolf Branch Innovation District nearly two decades ago with community input, they set the building height limit at 100 feet.
Several council members questioned why the development team deemed it necessary to go so much higher than what the code allows.
Councilman John Cataldo said that many prominent buildings in the city of Orlando, such as the Yard at Ivanhoe Village and the Cannery in the Packing District, don’t exceed 100 feet.
“These are massive mixed-use developments,” he said. “Where do you come up with the calculation that you have to be 150 feet taller than those projects to make this a viable project?”
Councilman Nate Walker said that while he likes the project, he also wasn’t comfortable with the height. He noted that when the development team came before the council in January for the first reading, they said they couldn’t go lower than 319 feet.
“They keep saying we can’t go down, but somehow you keep coming down,” Walker said.
Even as Amco gradually scaled down the building height, the development team was unwilling to reduce density.
At a council meeting in January when the project stood at 319 feet, the developer’s proposal included 750,000 square feet of commercial square footage and 1,375 residential units across apartments, condos, and senior living facilities.
When the project came back for a final vote Tuesday, the developer had increased the residential component by 439 units and the commercial space by 200,000 square feet.
Hakim explained this was made possible by adding a basement feature to the buildings on the site.
The plan also called for a 100,000-square-foot convention center, 325 hotel rooms, a 60,000-square-foot medical office, a 125,000-square-foot self-storage facility, a preschool, an underground parking garage, and a 5.2-acre man-made lake with walking trails and outdoor fitness equipment accessible to the public and residents.
The commercial components included a 24,500-square-foot food market space, a number of restaurants, and a specialty grocery store totaling approximately 55,000 square feet.
Amco anticipated investing $980 million into the effort, including a payout of $32 million in impact fees to the city and county for necessary infrastructure improvements.
Council member Cal Rolfson joined Vice Mayor Marc Crail in a vote in favor of the project, which would have been the first to move into the Wolf Branch Innovation District
“The purpose of the Wolf Branch Innovation District was to…help sustain the economy of this city,” Rolfson said. “The Wolf Branch Innovation District was always intended to be innovative, thus the name.”
He said that the 100-foot height requirement for the district was “randomly” picked twenty years ago without any scientific basis behind it.
He lauded Amco Development’s willingness to work with the city.
“I have never in my nine years experienced a developer who has been as accommodating as Mr. Hakim and his partners in trying to accommodate the wishes of this council and this city,” he said. “It’s exceptional. He’s unique in trying to work with us. If (197 feet) isn’t an accommodation to try and encourage us to improve this development, there’s nothing that will work for this city. …This is the perfect example of what the Wolf Branch Innovation District was created for.”
The vote Tuesday came after more than a dozen residents spoke out against the project.
Saying it’s better suited for a metropolitan area than a city in Lake County, some of them carried signs that read: “Don’t Orlando my Mount Dora.”
Brent Spain, a land-use attorney with Theriaque & Spain who represented Amco, said he understands the opposition to a concept that is unlike anything the city has ever seen.
“This is something different,” he said. “This is a new creature and we are the first ones (to try and build in the innovation district) so we are sort of a punching bag.”
However, he argued that the project complies with the city’s plan for the Wolf Creek Innovation District.
City staff also recommended approval.
“It’s a dense, compact development,” Spain said, “but it’s exactly what your future land use calls for in this employment center. If you don’t like your plan, change your plan.”
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