Regional sports complex development, The Dynasty, receives key approvals from Ocoee

The Ocoee City Commission unanimously approved at its Feb. 18 meeting two key ordinances regarding the development of The Dynasty | Ocoee, a billion-dollar regional sports complex coming to the city — an amendment to the site’s large-scale comprehensive plan future land use map designation from low-density residential and conservation to commercial and the rezoning of the site to city PUD. 

During the second reading of these two ordinances, representatives of the development presented key aspects of the project, provided an updated timeline of the development process and answered questions and concerns from the commission and public. 

“I want to make sure that everybody here understands that this is not the closing of the project,” said Marcos Bastian, a representative for Montierre Development, during the meeting. “This is actually what I jokingly call the end of the beginning. … (It is) actually starting what is going to be the most palpable, most visible piece of this project, which is all of the site planning, all of the design, all of the permitting. If you are concerned that you haven’t heard about this project, there’s still a lot of ground to cover. There’s still a lot of communication that we’re going to have with everybody, including all members of the public and this board. … From here until probably about the middle of this year is when we go through the site review and approval process, which is going to also come to this board. We’re already working with environmental permitting … so we can actually start doing site work and two very important things, which is the site mitigation work and the site preparation work.”

Several residents took the opportunity to express concerns and approval or ask questions during the public comment section of the ordinances’ reading. 

“I’m glad the project’s going to happen, but there’s about a 5-acre tract that they showed that was all wooded in the southeast corner of their tract; well, that’s our properties,” Ocoee resident Ed Roberts said. “There’s six families that live there, and we’re going to be heavily impacted by this. So, is there some type of sound or visual barrier that they’ve designed to be able to put up around us … (to) eliminate any potential problems that can come from thousands of people every week coming through our property?”

Owner and developer Jaime Douglas said his company has various methods to mitigate Roberts’ concerns and is committed to continuing to have discussions with him and members of the community throughout the process.

“Absolutely, we have various methods to make (Roberts’) life as normal as possible in this effect,” he said. “We’ll commit to furthering those discussions throughout this whole process and make sure that everybody’s up to speed and happy with the whole scenario. Now that we’ve gotten this plan to where it is today, we can take a step back and reinvigorate those conversations that we had previously or discuss what we’re going to do with the site plan to make that as feasible as possible.”

Bastian also addressed a variety of other concerns, including traffic, growth and environmental impacts.

“The reality is that this is a life-changing project,” he said. “It doesn’t happen every day, but I also know that you all have concerns. The fact that (you all are) here, nobody comes to a public meeting on a Tuesday night unless they have something on their mind.

“I cannot read minds but I can pretty much guess that a number of you here have traffic as your primary concern,” Bastian said. “As we have stated over and over during the public planning process, Jamie has committed to improvements to the existing roadway network (that’s) way beyond what any other developer would do. … This project is different because, without those improvements, this does not succeed. Nobody wants to come to Ocoee to be stuck in traffic. So, part of our success is to make sure that access, in and out, and flow through between the project and all these other destinations that will be created around the city is as frictionless as we can.”

In other news

• The Ocoee City Commission approved a 10-item consent agenda by a 3-1 vote without discussion. District 4 Commissioner George Oliver III made a motion to pull or discuss item No. 5 — which was about the city taking control of operations for Ocoee Little League — but his motion did not receive a second. The city received a letter from then-president of the organization, Reann Fitzpatrick, stating the board was dissolving.
  
  
• Among the consent agenda items approved by the commission was the approval of appointment of Jason Mellen as an alternate member of the 2025 Canvassing Board; approval of the 429 Business Center Plat — which is required to create two new lots, Tract A and Tract B; and the approval of the final large scale plan for the Covington Oaks subdivision; a nearly 10-acre and 17-lot development located in District 4 north of A.D. Mims Road and west of North Apopka-Vineland Road.
  
  
• The commission heard a presentation by Lake Apopka Natural Gas District CEO Brent Haywood. His presentation focused on promoting the adoption of an ordinance that would require home developers in Ocoee to install the necessary infrastructure needed for homeowners to opt for natural gas as their power supply instead or in addition to electric.