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Orange County commissioners on Tuesday, June 7, denied a request to build a church in Horizon West.
Discovery Church sought a special exemption to construct a 43,190-square-foot, 737-seat church within the Lake Avalon Rural Settlement. The parcel currently is zoned A-1, which allows agriculture use of the land, as well as nurseries and greenhouses. In larger lots, the A-1 zoning allows for the construction of mobile homes and single-family homes.
Currently, Discovery operates a Winter Garden campus at 4064 Winter Garden Vineland Road, Winter Garden; a Sand Lake campus at 881 Sand Lake Road, Orlando; and an Alafaya campus at 2504 S. Alafaya Trail, Orlando.
Based on the number of seats for the church, the project would have required about 270 parking spaces.
The Board of Zoning Adjustment previously had recommended approval of the church. However, county staff considered the proposed structure to be incompatible with the current use of adjacent land — which primarily includes single-family homes.
Ultimately, the County Commission voted 4-3 to deny the request.
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Andrea Mujica is a staff writer for the West Orange Times & Observer, the Southwest Orange Observer and OrangeObserver.com. She covers sports, news and features. She holds both a bachelor's degree in journalism and an MBA from the University of Central Florida....
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