ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 Orange County Public Schools will host a community meeting Thursday to hear neighbors\u2019 concerns about a proposed affordable\/attainable housing development intended to help teachers and other OCPS employees.<\/p>\n
The meeting is set for 5:30-6:30 p.m. on Thursday at Catalina Elementary School inside the media center, next to the site of the proposed development.<\/p>\n
OCPS Deputy Superintendent Dr. Bridget Williams, who says she also lives near the proposed development, told News 6 she\u2019s hopeful residents will support the plan once they meet with school officials face-to-face and learn more about the project.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to come together and I guarantee you once they get to see us and they know us and they sit next to us at the meeting and they talk to us, we\u2019ll be just fine,\u201d said Dr. Williams.<\/p>\n
The plan calls for a developer to build 100 apartments on an 8.5-acre parcel adjacent to Catalina Elementary School, with priority for OCPS employees. According to a staff report for the municipal planning board, the development will be called \u201cWarwick Place.\u201d<\/p>\n
Neighbors in the Isle of Catalina neighborhood previously packed<\/a> a City of Orlando zoning meeting to oppose the proposal, raising concerns about how an apartment complex would fit into their single-family neighborhood, the potential traffic impacts, and the impacts on nearby Clear Lake.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we\u2019re against is having an apartment complex and a single-family neighborhood,\u201d said Isle of Catalina resident Byron Hebert. \u201cIf they wanted to build single-family homes for the teachers, something like that, we would not be against that.\u201d<\/p>\n Days later, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the latest version of the Live Local Act<\/a>, which allows school districts to build affordable housing on their properties regardless of current zoning.<\/p>\n The\u202fLive Local Act was signed into law in 2023, allowing eligible multifamily and mixed-use affordable housing developments to override local zoning in commercial, industrial, and mixed-use areas. <\/p>\n According to the Florida Housing Coalition (FHC) there are 234 total proposed projects in Florida and 24 projects already under construction. <\/p>\n