GlobeSt.com UPDATE: Minneola Taking Second Look at 689-Unit Apartment Project

MINNEOLA, FL-It could be something and it could be nothing but Minneola Mayor Randy Moye and his city council are reviewing for the sixth time in two years an estimated $55-million, 689-unit apartment project proposed by local developer Terry Hagen after learning a private planner hired by the city also does work for the developer.

Green Consulting Group, a Mount Dora-based firm headed by Tim Green, acknowledged to Moye that his company has worked for Hagen on a non-related Mount Dora residential venture but not on the developer’s planned Reserve at Minneola project near Grassy Lake and Turkey Farms roads.

Green told city officials his firm doesn’t recommend approval or rejection of any projects it is asked to review and that it has always disclosed its relationships with other developers to the city prior to being retained for a specific assignment. Green Consulting has worked for the city periodically since 1992. Minneola does not have a planning department.

After a controversial debate, the Minneola City Council voted 3-2 in June to approve Reserve at Minneola. Before the vote, the developer offered the city 19 acres of land; $100,000 for police and fire services; and $20,000 to offset school impact costs.

That offer was lower than a previous one that consisted of $300,000 in cash and a 60-acre donation. At that time, the project was planned for 711 apartment units, as GlobeSt.com previously reported. The Lake County School Board had previously rejected a similar offer from the developer.

The city’s permanent resident population is 7,000, according to the last US Census. The city’s proximity to Orlando and its reasonably priced and available land supply has attracted numerous developers to the largely agricultural area in the past five years.