Article by: Laura Kinsler | Growth Spotter | To view the original article, click here.
After four years of work, Beazer Homes is fining-tuning the plans for a new residential subdivision that will be developed on the last vestige of the McCoy Naval Annex, now known as Southport Village Center, in southwest Orlando.
Beazer has held two pre-application meetings with Orlando planners to review the latest version of the plan that includes 546 bungalows and townhomes — including 40 townhomes that will be sold at cost to the city for workforce housing. The affordable housing component was a condition the placed on the property when the City Council agreed to sell the 126 acres to the homebuilder for $3 million.
Those units will be undistinguishable from other townhomes, and the city’s Housing Department will manage the marketing and sale of the units, according to the agreement.
Laurie Botts, real estate division manager for the city, told GrowthSpotter this was an innovative solution for a company that doesn’t have an affordable housing product line in its portfolio.
“It’s our choice to buy 40 townhouses,” Botts said. “And these townhouses will not be obvious — like it’s not one building that’s a cheaper quality. Or it is not townhomes where all the red doors are affordable, right? It’s truly the quality of the townhouses that they’re building for everybody else.”
The city’s Development Agreement with Beazer also requires the homebuilder to create a sustainability action plan that could include elements such as construction of bike trails/lanes, EV charging stations, a composting program and/or allowing architecturally approved rain barrels.
Beazer engaged England, Thims & Miller for master planning and placemaking. The conceptual plan shows an existing drainage ditch that bisects the neighborhood repurposed as a linear park. Botts said the plan is to replace the ditch with a underground piping.
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