Developers of a planned 400-unit multifamily project at 2020 Old Dixie Highway told the Development Review Committee on Sept. 10 they need explicit confirmation from the city that water and sewer capacity is available before completing design and spending further development dollars.

Sameh Chakrabarti, engineer with ATLLL, LLC, told the committee that “one of the main things that we wanna know is the availability of water and sewer,” and said the team had received a statement locating connection points but had not received a commitment that the utility system has capacity for the project.

The issue surfaced during a staff review of the Gail Vista construction site plan, which the applicants described as a 400-unit multifamily residential development. Community development staff reviewed the project's submittal and noted outstanding engineering items, including sewer and lift-station calculations and a traffic analysis for a four-story building on Old Dixie Highway. The applicant said an architect and traffic consultant are on board but that the traffic study has not yet been ordered and the architectural connection points are incomplete.

Dylan Ames, an applicant representative, told the committee the timing affects project financing: Orange County has allocated $5,750,000 toward the project, he said, and the development team faces a commitment deadline next month and must close financing within 18 months or risk losing the funds. Ames said the team had paused architectural work pending confirmation that utility capacity exists and asked staff to confirm availability “and there's a path for us to be able to get the capacity that's needed.”

A city staff speaker said utilities staff are preparing an approach to allow new services while the city pursues a plant expansion, but that a full expansion would take about four years. The staff speaker said the city has not issued blanket denials and suggested the applicants speak directly with Vladimir, a utilities staff member who was working on interim capacity arrangements and planned to attend later in the meeting.

Staff also flagged a regulatory question: the applicants applied to use the Live Local Act under "Senate Bill 1730" but the site currently carries a commercial future land use designation and is zoned community commercial—under the current land development code multifamily is not permitted in that zoning without a different approval path. Community development asked for legal documentation demonstrating Live Local Act eligibility; staff said it would forward that evidence to the city attorney for review. If the project does not qualify under the Live Local Act, it would need to pursue a major development plan because multifamily is not permitted in the existing community-commercial zone.

Committee reviewers asked the applicants to provide corrected fire auto-turn diagrams and the outstanding engineering calculations once architecture and utility connection points are finalized. No formal vote or approval was taken; staff said they would follow up with Vlad (Vladimir) and the applicant offline and that the city attorney would review the Live Local Act eligibility paperwork.

The committee recorded outstanding process items: the traffic study and full architecture needed to produce definitive water/sewer connection calculations, and legal review to confirm whether the Live Local Act applies. The applicants repeatedly emphasized the time sensitivity tied to the Orange County funding allocation.