{"id":335579,"date":"2026-07-10T10:53:48","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T10:53:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/335579\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T10:53:48","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T10:53:48","slug":"ocps-teacher-housing-plan-near-catalina-elementary-faces-neighbor-backlash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/335579\/","title":{"rendered":"OCPS teacher housing plan near Catalina Elementary faces neighbor backlash"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">ORANGE COUNTY, Fla.  \u2013 A plan to add affordable housing for teachers <a href=\"https:\/\/www.clickorlando.com\/news\/local\/2026\/07\/01\/new-florida-law-lets-school-districts-build-affordable-housing\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.clickorlando.com\/news\/local\/2026\/07\/01\/new-florida-law-lets-school-districts-build-affordable-housing\/\">next to Catalina Elementary<\/a> is drawing strong opposition from some neighbors in the Isle of Catalina community.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">OCPS has already signed a lease for 100 new apartments on a nearby 8.5-acre lot, an area currently zoned for single-family homes. The project may be allowed under a state law known as the Live Local Act, which can override some local zoning rules for certain affordable housing developments.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">On Thursday, the Isle of Catalina Homeowners Association held a meeting to discuss the proposal. The HOA said both the school board and the developer Warwick Commons were invited but did not attend.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">\u201cDid OCPS and Warwick Commons say why they were unable to come?\u201d Ashley Garrett asked. \u201cThey did not,\u201d an HOA representative responded.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">A major concern residents brought up was traffic, especially with the complex proposed near already-busy Gulf Stream Road.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">Some residents also questioned the financial arrangement behind the deal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">\u201cHow does the school board benefit? They\u2019re offering up land and paying the developer?\u201d one resident asked during the meeting.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">Residents were told the project is intended to help teachers find more affordable places to live, but that explanation drew immediate pushback from others in the crowd.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">OCPS says a public meeting is now scheduled to give people living in the area a chance to be heard and to further explain the plan.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">That meeting is set for July 23 at 5:30 p.m. at Catalina Elementary, in the media center.<\/p>\n<p>Breaking News Alerts<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 bTVksG\">Get breaking news alerts delivered to your inbox.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 by WKMG ClickOrlando &#8211; All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. \u2013 A plan to add affordable housing for teachers next to Catalina Elementary is drawing&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":335580,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[1571,6601,1335,15305,139,141,140],"class_list":["post-335579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-affordable-housing","tag-ocps","tag-orange-county","tag-orange-county-public-schools","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=335579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335579\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/335580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=335579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=335579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=335579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}