Oviedo’s St. Luke’s Church talks with County about possible future expansion

St. Luke’s Church in Oviedo held a meeting with Seminole County’s staff to look at planning possible future expansions.

The Seminole County Development Review Committee met Wednesday morning, giving an early look at projects that could be coming in unincorporated areas of the county. St. Luke’s lies just outside of Oviedo city limits, falling under county jurisdiction. The Development Review Committee is the first step for most development. However, many projects proposed don’t come to fruition. 

The meetings are held with Seminole County professional staff to look at whether a project meets current county laws, or would require a rezoning or special approvals. 

Steven Lehenbauer, chief administrative officer for St. Luke’s, said the church was able to buy an additional 16 acres of land around the back of the church. 

Additionally, the church is looking to eventually put an entrance along Slavia Road to the north. Seminole County is planning to increase Slavia Road to four lanes. 

“Lord willing, St. Luke’s will continue to grow, and we don’t want to put those roads and parking areas where we eventually might want to add more buildings,”  Lehenbauer said. “We don’t have any defined building plans.”

But, Lehenbaur added, the preschool building is 78 years old.

You can read the church’s application here. You can read staff’s comments here. Calls to the church were not immediately returned.

Staff say proposed 40-acre RV storage project near Oviedo neighborhood doesn’t meet current zoning

In addition to the St. Luke’s project, a 40-acre RV storage park was proposed for the unincorporated Oviedo area. It would have parking spaces for 912 RVs, and include a wet pond.

Seminole County staff, though, said the project doesn’t mesh with the current zoning. 

“RV sales/storage/parks are not permitted uses in the A-1 zoning district,” staff wrote in the application comments. “RV parking (and) storage would require a Future Land Use Amendment to Industrial. Industrial Future Land Use is not compatible with the trend of development or adjacent future land use designations.”

Calls and emails to the owner of the property weren’t immediately returned. 

Seminole County Commissioner Jay Zembower said the RV storage project is “not likely to happen.”

“Zoning is not even close to consistent,” Zembower said. “We get folks coming in all the time thinking they can do things that are not within the code. I can’t imagine staff or commission would support the request. It’s a reach too far.”

Another project on the DRC’s agenda,called The Elysian, is just outside of Winter Springs’ boundary. It’s a proposed development with 11 to 12 single family residential lots on 6.13 acres located on the west side of Tuskawilla Rd, just south of the city’s Aldi store in a currently forested lot. 

“The County does not object to the Applicant developing in the County, provided the applicant connects to water and sewer,” staff wrote. “Staff strongly recommends that the Applicant reach out to the City of Winter Springs to discuss the utility connection for water and sewer for the proposed development.”

The project would next come back to the DRC for comments at a future meeting. 

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