Apopka staff and Wild Oaks developer preview town-center overlay, higher open-space and density standards

Apopka planning staff and the Wild Oaks developer presented a draft Town Center Overlay for the Kelly Park interchange area at a city workshop, outlining new open-space minimums, density bonuses, a 10-year buildout plan and required master plans intended to implement the Kelly Park form-based code’s town-center vision.

The Town Center Overlay, as explained by Bobby Howe, Apopka planning manager, and consultants, would apply to large tracts (a proposed minimum of 170 acres) that include all five underlying KPI character zones and would replace several existing KPI provisions with a single, more detailed regulating plan for blocks, streets, open space and development standards. Jim Constantine, principal of planning at LRK, said the overlay would raise the required minimum open space from the current 10–20% per underlying district to a 20% minimum across the gross tract and would provide a bonus if the project achieves 25% open space.

Why it matters: The overlay is intended to concentrate mixed-use development and public open space around the State Road 429/Kelly Park Road interchange and to enable a contiguous, master-planned town-center pattern rather than piecemeal parcel-by-parcel development. Proponents said the approach mirrors prior overlays such as the medtech campus appendix in the KPI code and aims to produce more walkable streets, a larger network of parks and varied street types than the base KPI provisions.

Details of the proposal and developer plans

- Applicability and controls: The overlay would be added as an appendix to the KPI form-based code and would only apply to sites meeting the large-tract threshold (presented as 170 acres in the current draft). Constantine said the overlay requires a town‑center block and street regulating plan, an open-space regulating plan, and master documents including development standards, design guidelines, a master parking plan and a master signage plan for city review and approval.

- Open space and bonuses: Constantine said the overlay raises the minimum open-space requirement to 20% across the whole tract and creates an incentive to reach 25% (a development bonus). He described a network of open spaces including the protected ‘‘Yonder’’ live‑oak stand, a centrally located park called ‘‘Wild Green,’’ linear ‘‘Mews’’ spaces and pocket parks. The team also confirmed stormwater amenities can be designed as amenitized open space and count in the calculation (staff noted the code allows up to 75% of certain stormwater ponds to be used in open-space calculations).

- Density and bonuses: The draft would increase allowed density under certain conditions. Constantine said the plan contemplates raising the base maximum from 25 units per acre to 27.5 units per acre with a potential bonus up to 30 units per acre; at the high end he said the overlay could allow quantities that would produce “over 5,000 units” across the full overlay area if the market and bonuses align.

- Phasing and early buildout: Joe Beninati, founder of Wild Oaks, told the council the team plans a roughly 10-year buildout. He said the first groundbreaking for residential is set for April of the year referenced in the presentation, with about 325 multifamily units in the initial phase; he also said the developer is pursuing a medical user and that a 20,000-square-foot medical office plus a roughly 6,000-square-foot ER were part of the project concept described to the council. The developer described having already invested in infrastructure and expecting additional escrowed funds to support further infrastructure work (exact escrow figures cited in the presentation were not fully specified in the transcript and are recorded in clarifying details below).

- Master planning requirements and design intent: Constantine and Alex Stringfellow (Stringfellow Planning and Design) reviewed street types, block sizes, building form controls, parking approaches and an open-space regulating plan intended to deliver a walkable main street, café-lined sidewalks and shared festival street treatments similar to other form-based mixed-use examples the consultants referenced.

Infrastructure, utilities and public facilities

- Utilities capacity and impact fees: Kevin Robertson of Kimley-Horn and Associates summarized capacity research noting that Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) modeling shows adequate capacity through 2030 under current assumptions and estimated total impact‑fee generation in the development scenario cited in the presentation (the presentation team estimated impact fees in the tens of millions over buildout; see clarifying details). Robertson and others said state code requires planning actions if water/wastewater capacity exceeds certain thresholds.

- Streets and parking: The team described a mix of public and private streets: main roads under construction would be public, while many internal streets are expected to be private with public easements for utilities and access. The overlay would introduce additional street-section types, on-street and angled parking in cross streets, and shared parking strategies in the core; a master parking plan will be required.

- Public facilities and coordination: Speakers said no public K–12 site is planned inside Wild Oaks but that a private preschool operator had expressed interest. The team also said Orlando‑area public schools (OCPS) own other nearby school sites under consideration in the broader area. The developer noted ongoing discussions about a potential fire station site and a communications/broadband provider for campus‑wide wireless infrastructure.

Questions and council feedback

Council members asked about phasing (the developer said residential and a potential medical use would be early phases), the requested flexibility on alcohol‑service setbacks from schools and churches (the developer requested an exception to the city’s 500‑foot setback for on‑site alcohol sales so co‑located uses could occur in a denser town-center configuration), parking-size and configuration for larger vehicles, tree-protection language for the Yonder oak stand, and whether ‘‘green building’’ language should be required or simply encouraged (consultants recommended code language be limited to requirements rather than voluntary preferences).

Next steps

At the close of the workshop, city staff indicated the project and overlay draft would proceed through the development‑review committee process, follow-up comprehensive plan amendment review and subsequent public hearings before Planning & Zoning and City Council. The workshop produced no formal vote or adoption; staff characterized the meeting as a workshop to solicit input and to refine the draft overlay prior to public hearings.

Ending

The Wild Oaks team and city staff said they would return with formal applications and the master plans required by the overlay; public hearings and the timing for those hearings were to be determined.