Residents cite traffic congestion, school overcrowding
Disney’s highly-touted first affordable housing project has failed to win over its would-be neighbors, who worry the entertainment giant’s 1,410-unit development will worsen traffic and crowd community schools.
Ahead of the initial public hearing at the county zoning board Thursday, many residents of West Orange County emailed officials in opposition to Walt Disney Imagineering’s request for a land-use change to allow apartment buildings on the 80-acre site.
“I completely understand the need and support the addition of affordable housing, but this is just not the location for it,” said Kelly Vanarsdall, who sells real estate and resides in a neighborhood less than two miles away.
The project received a far friendlier reception in April 2022 when it was announced amid a housing crisis so widespread that Orange County commissioners proposed a rent-control ordinance that voters approved but an appeals court struck down.
Mayor Jerry Demings saw the Disney project as an effort to “move the needle” to close an affordability gap. A Disney online news site, disneyconnect.com, said of the project, “we envision a place where cost-burdened renters can focus on their personal growth and prosperity by gaining access to affordable housing.”
Others agree.
“I’m concerned by the lack of affordable housing available to those who need it in our community,” Amanda LoFiego wrote to Demings and commissioners this week. “It is important to support those who support us – teachers, firefighters, nurses, hospitality workers, and more. We could not be the community we are without these key contributors.”
Disney plans to put what it calls an “attainable housing” development on land it owns along Hartzog Road near the Flamingo Crossings Town Center.
The Disney property lies outside the domain of the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District, formerly known as the Reedy Creek Improvement District and recently a battleground between the company and Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has replaced a Disney-friendly board with his own allies.
A community meeting about the project in September drew a crowd of more than 100 people to an elementary school cafeteria to hear project details from Kathy Hattaway, a Disney representative, and many in the crowd voiced their uneasiness.
“There is a lot of care being put into making this a great community for the people who will live here,” Hattaway told them. An Orange County staff report described the tone of the meeting as “mixed,” noting objections and concerns.
Many residents cited their worries in emails to commissioners, who have no say in today’s meeting but will eventually be asked to put their stamp of approval on the project.
“Orange County has already allowed far too many high-density housing complexes in this area. Current students are being under-served as the local schools are overcrowded and understaffed. Future schools are already projected to be over capacity,” Horizon West resident Mike Finnan said in an email. “Infrastructure and emergency services are already stretched.”
But commissioners and the zoning board also received emails in support of Disney’s project.
Disney’s Hartzog Road project is “intended to help support the hardworking residents who are currently priced out of the housing market and will have an important impact on the much-needed diversification of housing stock in Orange County,” wrote Robert Agrusa, president and CEO of the Central Florida Hotel Lodging Association.
Disney is not the only local entertainment company moving into the housing arena. In November, Universal Parks & Resorts executives staged a ceremonial ground-breaking for a $350 million development called Catchlight Crossings, a 1,000-unit affordable housing project near the Orange County Convention Center.
News Source: Orlando Sentinel
