Commission OKs Ocoee Oaks rezoning, with a traffic caveat

The Ocoee City Commission on Oct. 4 approved unanimously the rezoning of the Ocoee Oaks Joint Venture with the condition the traffic issue be examined and resolved.

The subject property spans 12.59 acres. However, only the southern 5.71-acre portion adjacent to White Road pertains to the rezoning. The property is located in the northeast corner of the South Clarke Road and White Road intersection. 

The rezoning of the property would change the current low-density residential land-use designation to single-family residential, which will allow the development of 22 homes.

Doug Gomber, Ocoee resident and White Hill Home Owners Association member, addressed the commission. 

“We are not here to kill this whole project; we put all of our faith in the (city of Ocoee) to do all of the things they’ve got to do,” he said. “But I have do voice my one big issue here, and we are going to do this until time ends, and that’s a traffic issue.

“The way this property wraps, there’s only going to be an access road that is only going to come out on White Road, which is very near to the intersection of White and Clarke,” Gomber said. “(That intersection) is already blocked up in the mornings and afternoons with school traffic, school buses, people coming back and forth.”

Commissioners Larry Brinson and Rosemary Wilsen echoed traffic concerns. 

“I don’t think our residents have a problem with the rezoning, it’s the issues that will come from adding homes in there,” Wilsen said. 

Wilsen made the motion to approve the rezoning of the property with the condition that the traffic issue be studied and resolved prior to the future development of the land. 

“We can vote to make sure we change the zoning, but when it comes down (to it), we need to make sure that we work on that intersection,” Mayor Rusty Johnson said. “I don’t mind doing it, but you need to tell me that we will be able to fix that.”