Sports Complex, Riverside pool, apartments: Your Oviedo news wrapup

The Oviedo Sports Complex will be receiving some much-needed updates in the near future, and the Riverside Pool may finally reopen for regular swimming.

As part of its May 20 consent agenda, City Council approved the awarding of a bid to replace OSC’s current outdated maintenance building. 

The current building, which is “at least 20 years old” and “deteriorating,” according to Oviedo Recreation and Parks Director Paul Belden, does not fit current space or usage needs, including the lack of bathroom facilities, air conditioning, staff office and break room.

The proposed building will increase the size to 40-feet by 60-feet, and will be a pre-engineered metal structure. Including demolition and contingency, the total project is expected to cost about $350,000. The funds will come from the city’s American Rescue Plan Act funds, which have a total of about $420,000 available for the project if needed.

Leaks, roof damage, rusting and other structural issues have plagued the current structure over the years, “providing unstable and unsafe conditions,” according to the project proposal. 

In addition to increased equipment storage space, the new building is expected to include a chemical storage area, air conditioning, offices, an employee common area and a restroom for staff.

Belden hopes the project will be fully completed by the end of the year. Once it begins, a temporary tent site will be erected for equipment storage.

”The good thing about [it] is that the building itself is [in] a separate area, so it’s not going to affect anything with the ball fields,” Belden said. “The only thing that it’ll do is it’ll create a challenge with staff to be creative in the placement of the tent to work around the construction that’s safe. … We’re going to still have to maintain the ball fields on a daily basis and perform the maintenance of the facility.

”We’re not going to have to shut down anything at the facility to [complete the] project,” he said.

In addition to the maintenance building, speed bumps have recently been installed at the OSC. The city is in the process of addressing the facility’s parking lot resurfacing needs, as well as replacing the current parking lot light fixtures with LED fixtures. 

Riverside pool update

While not fully open, the pool at Riverside Park, which had been closed for nearly a year and a half following damage sustained by Hurricane Ian, is finally being utilized.

The pool is currently being used for swim lessons, though regular lap swimming availability has not yet resumed. It is anticipated that the lap swimming reopening will occur in June.

“We’re currently reviewing available schedules and how we can maybe roll out a modified lap swimming time schedule for the summertime,” Belden said. 

The building at the pool site, which will house city operations and a much-anticipated senior center, is still being renovated, and there is no timeline for completion, though Belden said he hopes for a September reopening, which would be about two years from its original planned opening.

New developments moving forward

A number of residential development projects are moving forward in Oviedo.

City Council approved the architectural design order for the multi-family Sugar Mill development, which will be built on nearly 14 acres on the east side of State Road 417, just north of Oviedo Mall Boulevard as part of its consent agenda.

The proposed apartment development will contain 252 units over three four-story buildings and three two-story buildings.

As part of the order, the applicant, Erik Halverson, requested multiple deviations to the city’s architectural design standards, including fenestration (how windows and doors are arranged on a building), and materials, which will include brick, stone and panel siding. The deviation requests are to lower the minimum requirements for each of the various facades of the buildings.

Due to the deviations, three mitigation techniques are required. The proposed techniques include:

• Providing units that are part of the state’s “Communities for a Lifetime” initiative, which provides amenities for residents of all ages, especially the elderly. Sugar Mill will offer elevators, as well as main bedrooms on the ground level, and say that 98% of the units comply with the requirement
• It will include health design solutions such as community gardens, internal bicycle lanes and trails, outdoor fitness equipment and a community pond with a walking trail
• A $10,000 donation to the city’s Public Art Fund

What’s next for Oviedo Square and the former Chelonian Research Institute

City Council, as part of its consent agenda, approved the plat, or the divisions of a parcel of land, for the in-development Oviedo Square project by Pulte Homes.

The planned 70-townhome subdivision will be built on the nearly 14 acres the former Chelonian Research Institute previously owned. The plat will be broken up into the townhomes, four non-residential tracts, two open space tracts, two upland buffer tracts, one wetland tract, one stormwater tract and public rights-of-way.

It is part of the city’s designated Downtown Transition in its 2045 comprehensive plan. 

The nearly 100-year-old yellow building that most recently housed the Chelonian Institute’s museum will be sold separately, but be eligible to utilize the still-to-be completed infrastructure. Its fate is still undetermined.