OCOEE, Fla. – Just months after construction finished in their community, neighbors in Ocoee have been met with even more development just feet away from their properties.
For Kellie Beck and the hundreds of others who live in the Greens at Forest Lake, the sights, sounds and smells of construction give them a strong sense of Deja vu.
“It was nice and quiet,” Beck said. “Your car wasn’t constantly covered in dirt or picking up nails and flat tires and all the things that come with living in a construction zone. After six-to-eight months of down time, this all started up.”
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“I feel like I’m in an episode of the Twilight Zone,” Julian Delgado said.
Making matters worse, the future townhomes are part of a completely different community.
“When it looks like phase three of our community and it’s not, it’s going to cause issues,” Beck said. “People are going to be standing as new homeowners in their driveways looking at amenities that aren’t part of their community.”
Delgado, who serves as HOA president, predicts he’ll have to tell his soon-to-be-neighbors not to use his neighborhood’s amenities.
“No one wants to have that conversation and I know I’m going to have it,” he said. “I’m honestly gearing up for it already.”
Beck and Delgado say they aren’t against the land being developed, but they want it done in a way that benefits everyone – not just the developer.
“We really wanted them to plan the community with a four-way stop,” Beck said. “That would’ve been an ideal safety measure, but it was shot down because the developer would have to remove units in order to do that.”
Another area of concern is the intersection of West Road and Fountains West Blvd, which is the main entrance and exit for their community, an apartment complex, Renaissance Charter School and the many shops and restaurants in the nearby plaza.
Neighbors say it’s already difficult and dangerous turning left onto West Road to get to State Road 429 and they’re asking the city to install a traffic signal.
“The county did a traffic warrant analysis, and they’re in agreement that one is needed,” Beck said. “But because it’s a county-managed road but a city-needed light, there’s this debate of who’s paying for this. In the end it’s the people who live here who are taking the risk every day going in and out of that intersection with no sign of progress.”
Back in August, Beck and dozens of her neighbors went to an Ocoee City Commission meeting to express their worries over the future Magnolia Reserve community. Most, if not all, of their concerns have come true.
“I think the biggest frustration is we’re asking them to be proactive not reactive,” Beck said. “They want to fix something when it becomes a problem. We’re asking for it never to be a problem in the first place.”
Beck recently sent News 6 video showing all of the construction site water being pumped into their ponds, which are now overflowing. Even after significant rainfall, she says it never looks like it does now, and the water apparently reeks of sewage.
“No part of this process has felt like they’re doing has resulted in a positive change for the residents of Ocoee who are already here,” Beck said. “It has felt very much geared to meeting the needs of a developer that’s not part of our community.”
News 6 reached out to Ocoee leaders and the developer behind Magnolia Reserve, but we have not heard back.
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