A Balanced Community Takes Planning
After visiting the master planned
community Baldwin Park in Orlando, I couldn’t help but think of the
old Alan Sherman line, “A camel is a horse designed by committee.”
After looking at the cramped housing that looks better suited for
Massachusetts, I began to wonder if I was in Florida at all.
I still remember the beautiful old moss
covered oaks that dominated the landscape while I was stationed at
the old Orlando Air Force Base back in the early sixties. The
Baldwin community is built on the old Air Force Base turned Orlando
Naval Training Center. The Navy turned the property over to the City
of Orlando in 2000, after several years of planning and negotiation.
The other planned community in the
Orlando spotlight is the Disney planned community of Celebration, now
ten years old. Celebration came to life from woodlands not far from
the Disney World complex. With a ten-year track record, planners and
developers can see where the shortcomings and pitfalls have occurred.
They can also see where the planning was exactly right.
Sales have boomed. Florida Trend
Magazine recently reported the cheapest property in Celebration was a
one-bedroom townhouse that sold for $199,000. The magazine also
reports estate homes were going for $3 million. The median income of
the 10,000 Celebration residents is twice that of the average citizen
of Osceola County, where Celebration is located. One expert quoted
in the magazine stated by not setting aside affordable housing and
not building enough townhouses, the planners failed to create an
economically diverse community. No developer wants to be discouraged
from building an upscale community that is a commercial success, even
though Disney tried to control property speculation by stipulating
that sales by owners of less than one year for prices above the
Consumer Price Index would be turned over to the Celebration
Foundation.
Charlotte County envisions a more
diverse community with its upcoming Murdock Village. Property values
in Charlotte County skyrocketed after the start of land acquisition
by the County, and may adjust again as the project begins to actually
unfold into the local community. Provisions for affordable housing
must be included in the design process.
County Commissioner Matt DeBoer wants
to insure affordable/workforce housing is included in the master plan
for Murdock village by purchasing through the land trust with
ownership remaining in the trust. A limited amount of equity should
be allowed the renters/owners to promote upgrades to higher value
units and eventual ownership in other areas of the Village. Loraine
Helber, Charlotte County housing coordinator, would like to see the
yet-to-be selected developer include specific plans for affordable
housing in the bid process. With the care and concern of involved
officials, Charlotte County will hopefully be successful in avoiding
the economic lockout of the people needed to teach and care for our
community.
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