Oviedo opts out of Missing Middle Property Tax Exemption; Riverside Park set to receive upgrades 

With Oviedo’s population continuing to rise, housing availability is becoming more scarce and affordability less attainable.

With these issues in mind, Oviedo City Council opted out of the Missing Middle Property Tax Exemption — also called the Multifamily Middle Market Exemption — provided by the state’s Live Local Act during its Oct. 21 meeting. Seminole County opted out in July.

”I think the label’s misleading,” council member Natalie Teuchert said. “This is not providing a missing middle tax exemption. This is a tax exemption for luxury apartments.”

In terms of housing, the “missing middle” usually refers to units in properties such as duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes, courtyard apartments, cottage courts, townhomes, medium-sized multiplexes and live/work spaces, according to missingmiddlehousing.com. 

The program is meant to provide incentives to developers to offer affordable and workforce units to lower-income residents. Rent for these units may not exceed 90% of the fair market value rent, according to the resolution. 

New developments, or those built within the last five years, with more than 70 affordable units are eligible to receive the tax exemptions. Affordable is determined by the average median income of a county. For units that serve households earning between 80% and 120% of the area median income (AMI), the development would receive a 75% property tax exemption per unit, and for those serving households that earn less than 80% AMI, developments would receive a 100% exemption.

Between 2018 and 2022, Florida’s median household income was $68,000, while in Seminole County it was $74,500 and $117,000 in Oviedo, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. According to Oviedo City Manager Bryan Cobb, Seminole County’s AMI in 2024 is $90,400. Eighty percent of that would be $72,320, and 120% of it would be $108,480 — the numbers the tax exemptions would be based off of.

“The whole idea behind the Live Local Act was to provide affordable housing to low-income [households],” Cobb said. “These are what’s known as the middle-income folks.”

The average rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Seminole County is between $1,738 and $2,697, while for a three-bedroom it is $2,008 and $3,012 per month.

”What we saw with this is a developer could come in with basically market rates and be able to qualify for this tax exemption,” Cobb said. “It was quite concerning.”

Looking at three recently built developments in Oviedo — The Ellington, The Dwell and Park Place — based on the amount of units that could fall inside the qualifying range, Cobb said the exemptions could cost the city more than $300,000 to its general fund.

“It’s basically just a tax exemption for the … owners of the apartment [complex],” council member Bob Pollack said. “It doesn’t really help the individual renters in any way, shape or form, because they could basically come in right at the market rate. I don’t see a purpose in it.

”It basically just gives the apartment builders less taxes to pay, and then it impacts the city, and the city residents are the ones that are subsidizing the general fund for that,” he said.

Mayor Megan Sladek said it would not fit with the spirit of the program in Oviedo.

”I wish that the state legislature would have included something in this legislation that would require the owner of the property to pass along any tax savings to the renter,” she said. “That, I think, was what they were aiming to have happen, but there’s no requirement to do it. So, having everybody else subsidize it for somebody to make an extra profit doesn’t make any sense.”

Riverside Park improvements

Just two years after suffering significant damage from Hurricane Ian, Riverside Park is in line to receive major funding for upgrades.

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection awarded the city of Oviedo a $200,000 Florida Recreation Development Assistance Program grant, which requires a 100%, or $200,000 match by the city. City Council approved the grant and a budget amendment to allow for the match as part of its consent agenda during its Oct. 21 meeting.

To make the match, $200,000 will be funded with the use of recreation and parks impact fees and transferred from the city’s general fund to the recreational facilities improvement fund, and will be reimbursed to the general fund upon project completion. 

The planned improvements include multi-purpose field renovations, new picnic tables and benches, a new dog park and parking lot improvements, and will “continue the implementation of the [city’s] Master Plan for Riverside Park,” according to the meeting agenda. Once the agreement is executed, the city will have until June 30, 2027 to complete the projects and request reimbursement.