SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. — The Seminole County Board of Commissioners voted 3 to 2 to approve a 92-unit apartment complex of potentially affordable housing in Oviedo Tuesday, despite dozens of neighbors showing up at that meeting to protest.
- Residents say complex will increase traffic; dangerous for kids
- Others say it will lower their property values
- Realtors association says complex will allow people a place to live
People living adjacent to the lot where the complex will be built on the corner of Alafaya Trail and Beasely Road say the increased traffic will be dangerous for kids.
"It is not safe for the kids to come out. It is absolutely an accident waiting to happen," said resident Prasad Chittaluru.
Some also complained it could lower the property values of their homes.
"You don't just stick something there that's going to stick out like a sore thumb in the middle of this whole neighborhood," said resident Mike Bianco.
Bianco and 1,150 other people from Seminole County signed a petition to stop the development.
However, the developer, Atlantic Housing, says this could put a dent in Central Florida's affordable housing crisis.
The Orlando Regional Realtor's Association said it agree with that statement and support the development.
"The weight of affordable housing is on all of us … it is all of our responsibility to make sure we are all looking out for our fellow man and making sure we have places for people to live," said CEO of the Realtor's Association Cliff Long.
Now that the application has been approved by the commissioners, construction can move ahead.
Atlantic Housing said it has made several concessions to the neighborhood including a landscaping barrier and limiting road access from the development into the neighborhood.