P&Z recommends denial of request to expand Walden’s Pond Cove assisted-living home from 6 to 8 beds

The Seminole County Planning and Zoning Commission on April 2 voted to recommend denial of a special-exception request to increase the licensed capacity of an existing assisted-living home at 2825 Walden's Pond Cove from six residents to eight.

Hillary Peyton, planner with Seminole County Development Services, told the commission the application for Arrow Senior Care would increase resident count in a single-family subdivision and that staff found the request met only two of the 10 approval criteria in the Seminole County Land Development Code. Peyton said staff’s report concluded the increase would change the character of the area, create additional vehicle trips (employees, visitors, medical personnel and ambulance transports) and trigger commercial-facility requirements — such as signage, parking and sprinkler systems — that would be “not compatible with the rural zoning classification” and the comprehensive plan’s intent for the property to act as a buffer between urban and rural…