Jolly Jamboree to become Ocoee’s signature Christmas experience

The city of Ocoee will move forward with only one signature Christmas event this year.

The Ocoee City Commission at its Tuesday, June 6, meeting voted to cancel its Christmas Parade, an annual tradition that stopped during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Instead, the city will offer its Jolly Jamboree as the main holiday event.

Commissioner Richard Firstner was absent from the meeting.

“Last year we held it; we had a great turnout, great response from the community and a lot of people came out on a Saturday night and participated in it,” Commissioner Rosemary Wilsen said of the jamboree. “We had participation from the local schools; the kids came out, it was a great community event. I’d like to see us stay with the Jolly Jamboree and not do the parade because if you can do two mediocre events or you can do one good event. … To me, it was a classy event. We had carolers (who) roamed the street. We had students who came and did their activities. … It was just a fun event for everyone, and I’d like to stay with it.”

Prior to 2020, the Ocoee Christmas Parade was hosted annually and organized by the Ocoee Lions Club on the first Saturday of the month of December. However, since COVID-19, the Lions Club has seen a decline in membership — according to the agenda — and that has caused the club to not be able to organize the parade. 

“If we do the Jolly Jamboree, maybe we up it more and do it a little bit better,” Mayor Rusty Johnson said. 

The commission approved the measure unanimously, with Firstner absent, to focus solely on the planning of the Jolly Jamboree and not host the Ocoee Christmas Parade again. 

THE REGENCY

More apartments and shops are coming to Ocoee.

The City Commission approved with conditions the large scale final plan and first amendment to The Regency Mixed-Use Development. 

The development sits within the Community Redevelopment Area Special Overlay District, which is titled CRA Target Area 1.

The Regency Mixed-Use Development will include 300 luxury multi-family units in seven buildings. Building 1 will consist of 12 units and about 7,000 square feet of retail space. Building 2 will consist of 32 units consisting of studios and one- and three-bedroom apartments. These two buildings will be located on 16.68 acres on the north side of the extension of Old Winter Garden Road and have two access points. 

Buildings 3 and 4 will have a total of 88 units between the two consisting of one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments. Buildings 5, 6 and 7 will total 168 unites also consisting of one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments. These buildings and the development’s clubhouse will be located on the south side of the extension of Old Winter Garden Road and also will have two access points. The dog park and a stormwater pond also will be located on this side of the development. 

“This has been a pretty long process,” said Daniel O’Keefe, partner at the Shutts & Bowen LLP law firm, in representation of the developer. “This process has changed the project dramatically from what was originally presented to match up with the city’s vision of this area. … We are very excited about this project. We think it’s going to be great to start the development and extend Winter Garden Road and this whole area.” 

The conditions for approval included that all final staff comments were revised to staff’s satisfaction and the approval of the accompanying first amendment to the Development Agreement.