Winter Springs scrambles for territory after new law passes

A law just passed at the state level will pave the way for $711 million in additional funding for affordable housing in Florida, but local leaders fear they’ll lose control over development. 

The Winter Springs City Commission Monday night tried to grapple with the new Live Local Act, which goes into effect July 1, and could allow developers of mixed-use or multi-family residential buildings to build in areas previously controlled by municipalities. 

More specifically, cities, according to the bill, will be forced to approve multi-family and mixed-use residential developments in commercial, mixed use, or industrial areas if the development comprises at least 40% affordable housing. That “affordable” bar applies to residents making up to 120% of the adjusted median income in the area. According to the Federal National Mortgage Association, more commonly known as Fannie Mae, the median income for Winter Springs is $85,700.

“What that means is people who work for the county, people who work for City Hall, that they can afford to live here,” Winter Springs Community Development Director Terrilyn Bostwick said. 

But the prospect of those developments falling within the more than half a dozen county enclaves completely surrounded by Winter Springs city land had Commissioner Cade Resnick calling for a plan to bring all of those enclaves into the city. 

Resnick’s fear, he said, was that in a rush of developers looking to build new affordable housing, they would find success in pushing the county to allow those developments in enclaves inside of Winter Springs. The city is still battling a developer of a 4.81 acre property along Tuskawilla Road that lies within a small county enclave and could potentially become a three-story storage business. The city would lose control over the developments, he said. 

“I’m trying to circumvent that developer going to the county and then it’s a [Planned Development] zoning,” Resnick said. Planned development zoning is a special type of zoning that defines allowable uses for a specific parcel of land. Seminole County’s controversial rezoning of an enclave in Winter Springs was a Planned Development rezoning to allow specifically a storage facility. 

Resnick proposed that the city reach back out to the county on a Joint Planning Agreement, which county officials had recently accused the city of rejecting in the past. The JPA would allow the city to work with the county to plan development along shared borders or facilitate the city annexing land inside enclaves. 

But that doesn’t mean that there will be a rush of developers looking to build in those enclaves, Bostwick said. 

“In all honesty, most commercial, residential multifamily developers are not in the business of affordable housing,” she said. “They are in very specific markets.” 

City staff indicated that they would confer with City Attorney Anthony Garganese, who was not present, to discuss what legal challenges the city would face and how it could handle the new law, before the city decides how to move forward in a future meeting.