CCP 09-25-2006 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

. Baldwin Park (fonnerly Naval Training Center) Orlando, Rorida The U.S_ Navy announced the closing of its Orlando Naval Training Center (NTCI in 1993, and the base officially closed 3 years later. Although the community initially felt a sense of loss, the demand for developable land within Orlando meant that opportunities abounded for redevelopment. Today, the former base is Baldwin Park, an award-winning development only a few miles from downtown Orlando. When the Navy announced that the base would close, the city of Orlando immediately formed a base reuse commission to create a redevelop- ment plan. The commission, made up of 150 central Florida business and government leaders. held 174 public meetings over the next 2 years to get the public's ideas and feedback on proposed plans_ When the commission finished its plan in 1995, the city created a seven-member NTC Advisory Board to implement it and held more than 100 public meetings to select the developer and refine the plan. Among the tools at these public meetings were visual preference surveys that showed anendees different building and community design options, and then asked them to rate each one. The vision that came from these meetings was "the overwhelming desire to link the property with surrounding neighborhoods, provide public access to lakes, form a network of green throughout the project, create a vibrant main street, and disperse automobile traffic through a gridded street network. ....xiii . . The city received the base from the federal govern. ment and transferred it to a private developer, chosen through a competition, who renamed the parcel Baldwin Park. The developer paid $7.6 million for 1,093 acres: 90 acres went to the federal and state governments for gov- ernment offices and 468 acres were protected wetlands, lakes, and land set aside for parks, leaving 535 develop- able acres for more than 4,000 homes, 1 million square feet of offices and stores, a new elementary school, a new middle school, a church, and three community centers. The developer also paid $1.7 million to cover additional cleanup costs. The city offered the developer a loan and a line of credit to help with demolition, envi- ronmental remediation, and construction, and a $13.5 million impact-fee credit based on what the Navy had spent on the base's infrastructure."iv As the planning and building proceed, the city holds monthly public meetings in cooperation with the developer, and the Navy moni- tors environmental conditions at the site. > ""C ::s as Q.) en ca (.) 1/ Baldwin Park is an ideal location to build a new practice and not have to drive 45 minutes from my home everyday. I look forward to serving the people in my own community and establishing long- term relationships with r them-not only as patients, but as neigh- bors and friends, too. 1/ Dr_ William Dunn. a dentist who lives in Baklwin Park and plans to open a new practice there"~ The Baldwin Park Development Company set aside 468 aues as protected wetlands, lakes. and park land. 111111 27