LAKE COUNTY, Fla. – The debate over what will come of the Wolf Branch Innovation District continued at Tuesday morning’s Lake County Commission meeting.
Lake County Commissioner Leslie Campione called for a face-to-face meeting with Mount Dora city officials to “clear the air” over the future of the Wolf Branch Innovation District.
“Maybe the issues are as far as maybe that plan needs to be modified to address current trends and land uses,” Campione said. “I think it would be beneficial to try and get facts out there instead of all of these assumptions that I don’t really think are based in fact.”
Lake County and the City of Mount Dora were part of an agreement for the project, which expired back in April. Campione feels there has been misinformation regarding whether the county has held up its end of the deal.
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“This is kind of regularly stated as if a matter of fact, which I don’t think is the case,” Campione said.
In order to reactivate the agreement, Mount Dora voted to approve the amended agreement at its last meeting on June 6. The new agreement allows the county to approve a development order before lands are annexed but still gives the Mount Dora city council a say in those developments.
“I think it affords some protection,” said Mount Dora Councilmember At-Large Doug Bryant. “It’s not what we want. It’s a long way from what we want, but it does provide something, and something is better than nothing at this point.”
Back in February, News 6 told viewers about a development that included a 310-foot office building that the council rejected. Now, a new development has been proposed for the Wolf Branch Innovation District which includes nearly 3,000 residential units.
Commissioner Campione said there may need to be more flexibility when it comes to developing the massive property.
“From what I can tell, what this developer is proposing is in concept and in spirit very close,” Campione said. “I mean, the ratios are there as far as job creation to residential, but what this developer has chosen to do is group their light industrial uses in one part of the property, shift the residential from that area up to the other part of the property, and then put mixed uses retail, institutional, hospital, educational all together.”
The amended Joint Planning Agreement is not in place yet and has been placed on the County Commission’s June 27 agenda for further discussion.
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