Oviedo Council OKs new student housing options at Reformed Theological Seminary

Student housing at Reformed Theological Seminary’s Oviedo campus can now expand under a newly approved development amendment that allows up to 163 beds, including a 40-bed dormitory for students attending for short durations.

The Oviedo City Council unanimously approved the proposal on Monday, amending the development agreement governing the seminary’s 63-acre property near East Mitchell Hammock Road and Eastbridge Drive. The amendment maintains the property’s existing cap of 120 multifamily units, while also allowing a maximum of 163 student housing beds in those units. It also allows two detached single-family homes for caretaker or administrative use.

This was the second and final adoption of the proposal. 

Reformed Theological Seminary is a religious college in Oviedo, often called RTS. Some residents previously expressed concerns about how additional development could affect wooded portions of the property and nearby conservation areas. RTS Senior Director of Operations Rob McAdams said the seminary is not seeking permission to develop conservation land.

“Those wooded areas are conservation areas along Eastbridge Drive and East Mitchell Hammock Road,” McAdams said in an interview with Oviedo Community News. “We are not allowed to touch those, and this amendment is not seeking permission to touch those.”

McAdams said RTS plans to build on portions of the property that were cleared decades ago when the campus was originally developed.

“We’re not looking to clear any more wooded areas or clear-cut anything else,” McAdams said. “We’re just looking to build on the pads that are already prepared.”

McAdams said the proposal reflects changes in higher education since the property was originally approved in the 1990s.

“When the property was conceived and developed back in the mid-’90s, virtually 100% of our students were moving to Central Florida and going to our campus full time,” McAdams told the Council. “In the last 30 years, the education landscape has changed in such a way that a number of our students are now doing hybrid and online programs.”

McAdams said many of those students only come to campus once or twice a year for a short period of time, and often rely on hotels and Airbnbs during their stays.

“One of their largest obstacles to coming and getting that coursework done on site is in finding housing,” McAdams told the Council. “We thought if we have this approval for housing, we could put up a facility that they could use just for a week or two at a time.”

Oviedo Development Services Director Teresa Correa told the Council the changes would place a specific limit on student housing by capping the number of beds at 163. She also said the proposal would reduce the number of daily vehicle trips that could be generated compared with what is currently allowed on the property.

Watch: City Council discusses Reformed Theological Seminary in Oviedo expansion plans

McAdams said the seminary never reached the 750-student figure that was used when the property was originally planned.

“That figure was never realized here for the Orlando campus,” McAdams said. “We’ve really found our sweet spot has been at about 200 full-time students.”

The seminary campus butts up to the Kingsbridge neighborhood. Resident William Ryan asked city leaders to clarify the language regarding architectural standards in another section of the Kingsbridge development. Ryan said he wanted written assurances that the changes approved for the seminary property would not affect development standards that apply elsewhere in the community.

“The bottom line of all this is [a] verbal assurance of intent doesn’t bind future development,” Ryan said. “Only the explicit text of the ordinance carries the force of law.”

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City Attorney Wade Vose said the seminary’s request applies only to property owned by RTS and does not change development standards for other portions of Kingsbridge.

“The state of the planned unit development (PUD) with regard to those tracts remains as it was when the original PUD development agreement was adopted,” Vose said.

Council members also received an update on a deteriorating fence that Ryan had raised during the June 1 meeting.

Correa said city staff, environmental consultants and seminary representatives recently inspected the area and determined that an earth berm still provides the barrier required under the property’s development rules. Because of that, she said the city has no objection to removing the damaged fence.

McAdams told the Council that seminary staff and students had already begun removing portions of the fallen fence after receiving verbal approval from the St. Johns River Water Management District.

“They did understand that portions of it had fallen down and that’s where this whole conversation began,” McAdams told the Council. “That whole area has been cleared up, and that fallen fence has been removed and we’re not opposed to removing the rest of the fence either.”