With 35 DRIs possible, Osceola faces explosion
KISSIMMEE -- In the next few years, five major housing developments will add nearly 30,000 homes and more than 100,000 people to Osceola County -- far more than the number of residents now living in both Kissimmee and St. Cloud.
And that's just a snowflake in a blizzard of planned development: The county has a sixth development of regional impact -- or DRI -- on the way and there are 29 additional such large-scale projects in the pipeline, says Altee Mercer, a county commissioner.
Osceola County, which currently has about 242,000 people, is expected to have a population of 525,100 by 2025 -- a 123 percent increase. And Mercer says some estimates show the county topping 570,000 people by that time.
"With so many DRIs in the works, there is a great opportunity to shape the direction of growth of the county and create a cohesive and sustainable community," says Mercer, who hosted the first Osceola County Growth Management Summit recently at the Gaylord Palms Resort & Convention Center.
Mercer says the new comprehensive plan, which was adopted by the county in December, calls for channeling the next 20 years of urban growth into the northwest quadrant, while concentrating agricultural and conservation activities into the remainder.
The five current DRIs -- or projects typically involving at least 1,000 residential units, making them large enough to create a regional impact --sit along the western shores of Lake Tohopekaliga and will generate an estimated 250,000 to 400,000 additional daily commuter trips through the county.
As such, the county's new comp plan, which is under final review by the Department of Community Affairs in Tallahassee, will affect all of the proposed projects.
"These builders must have at least three units on each acre of land," Mercer says. "Higher densities mean more green space."
That's a far cry from the early 1990s when, he says, growth went out of control. The county's stance at that time, he says, was to tell developers they could build, on average, 1.75 homes per acre. "We were wrong -- and created the classic definition of sprawl," he says.
Mercer says the county's new plan is meant to make up for past decisions that contributed to sprawl.
Developers must plan for future roadways, make sure schools and parks are in place and keep a close eye on creating green space, especially in the Lake Toho area. The plan also calls for an integration of mixed-use residential development that supports work force housing.
Osceola County is "the epicenter for growth in Central Florida," says Linda Chapin, director of the University of Central Florida's Metropolitan Center for Regional Studies.
"County officials seem genuinely committed to the principles of high growth," Chapin says. "They have developed a high bar for developers in the county."
The county now wants the density of land to be three units per acre or higher.
"Sprawl will bankrupt us and will not support us long range," Mercer says.
Jeff Jones, smart growth coordinator in the Osceola County planning department, says the county "is one of the most challenging places to be a county planner." Jones is monitoring the growth of roughly 32,000 developable acres up for grabs inside the county's urban services boundary.
"Osceola County is the new growth center of Central Florida," says Jones, who recently joined the county staff after years at the East Central Florida Regional Planning Council.
Mercer says if the county does not accept the type of density outlined in the proposed comp plan, "then we are doomed to pave over the whole county."