Story Estates would have added over 300 homes south of St. Cloud Manor
By a 3-2 vote, County Commissioners Monday denied a development plan that would have brought over 300 new houses, townhomes and parking spaces to an area off Story Road near the St. Cloud Manor area.
Ricky Booth, whose District 5 includes the Manor, made the motion to deny the preliminary subdivision plan for Story Estates, calling it a “square peg in a round hole,” and that a community of townhomes and small lots does not fit in with the surrounding five-acre lots that surround the 62-acre property near Story Road and Tucker Avenue, south of the sharp turn Hickory Tree takes south of “The Manor”. It’s also just south of where the Buena Lago community was just built along Hickory Tree at the end of 2023.
“Compatibility is what it’s all about,” Booth said.
Commissioners Peggy Choudhry and Brandon Arrington, the latter who mentioned the timing wasn’t right to bring this sort of development to that sort of neighborhood, voted with Booth to deny. A number of area residents, attending the meeting to speak on the agenda item, instead applauded the vote outcome.
Their concerns have Story Estates have been the layout and density, how drainage would affect neighboring properties, traffic concerns that included putting parallel-parking spots on Story Road.
The Osceola County Planning Commission had already voted 5-4 to deny to proposal, and Monday’s meeting was the third time the proposal had appeared on a Commission agenda. Each time, applicant Khaled Hussein of Bavaria LCC and agent Shawn Hindle of Hansen Walter & Associates proposed fewer units and a smaller percentage of townhomes, less density and roadway and utility improvements, leaving an existing wetland as a buffer, installing a 10-foot sidewalk on Story Road and other changes that would, “Create a walk-able development.”
But, in the end, Story Estates’ plan met a different fate than 309 acres of the Triple H Ranch that would allow for 1,070 homes along Hickory Tree Road south of Alligator Lake. It was approved in January with a 4-1 vote that included Booth’s ‘no’ vote, although it came with new provisions for larger lot sizes (100 feet rather than 85) on Alligator Lake, and future school parcels.
What was not voted on Monday was a proposed ordinance to establish a county-wide moratoriums on applications to permit changes on areas current zoned as nonresidential areas to residential zoning, and those in mixeduse and urban-infill zones. It originally came on the agenda on June 17, when staff and the county attorney’s team asked for more time to draw it up legally. That’s been continued to the Aug. 19 meeting at 5:30 p.m.
