OCOEE, Fla. — Ocoee City Commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday evening for a six-month development moratorium that will give city staff a temporary pause, allowing them to focus on rewriting the land development code and comprehensive plan for the city. 

City staff said this will pave the way to making sure any future development coincides with the city’s long-term vision.

The decision to do so has stirred mixed feelings for residents in the community.

Some residents acknowledge that a six-month halt for development is not ideal, but is necessary to ensure that the city’s land development regulations are up to code.

Others say stopping the momentum for development will put a wrench in the city’s progress.

Doug Gomber has been living in Ocoee for 11 years. To him, living in Ocoee allows him to get the best of both worlds.

“I wouldn’t live anywhere else in Florida. But I need the big city too. I like the quiet here, but I like the big city,” Gomber said.

As an insurance agent who represents businesspeople from retail store owners to builders and contractors, he said Ocoee is standing on a great deal of potential for future development.  

But he’s concerned that a six-month moratorium will halt the city’s momentum.

“When you throw up a six-month red flag and say nobody come to Ocoee for six months, I think what you’re telling developers, landowners, restaurateurs, manufacturers that Ocoee is closed for business,” he said.

Gomber says growth in Central Florida is not stopping anytime soon, and he’s fearful that imposing this six-month moratorium will make it more complicated to do business down the line. 

“If they think that at the first day after a six-month moratorium that everything is going to open up again and people are going to line up doing business with Ocoee, that’s not going to happen. Once you stop that momentum, it takes a while to get that going again,” Gomber explained.

Although Ocoee City Manager Craig Shadrix agrees with Gomber, he said the city’s code isn’t sustainable with its long-term plans to make Ocoee more urban, which he says the community has been calling on for a long time.

“We want more urban walkable places where we can have multiple unplanned exchanges. Those types of things and what our code does currently, does not create that. I hate it. I hate having to hit the pause button, but I think we’re going to be okay,” Shadrix expressed.

Shadrix said Ocoee citizens have been clear that they want to see an urban-style commercial neighborhood with wider streets and access to public dining on sidewalks.

He said city staff are also projecting population growth on tournament weekends, ever since travel sports have become its own “market” in Ocoee.

Ocoee resident Kellie Beck is among those who agree that the moratorium reflects the community’s needs.

“An update to the land development code that brings it in line with more modern development, that’s going to allow us to design for what benefits the people that live here and the businesses that are here. I think it’s a step in the right direction and really going to make sure we have what we need to continue growing as a community,” Beck said, who has lived in the Greens at Forest Lake neighborhood since 2021.

Having grown up in Clermont and Lake County, Beck said she sees the development happening there and is confident that it’ll carry over in a similar fashion in Ocoee, due to its accessibility to major roadways and appeal to homeowners and businesses.

The moratorium will temporarily stop any construction and development projects within the city limits until March 17 of next year, unless the city decides to extend or terminate the motion altogether.

It will also not affect the existing 23 projects that are currently under construction in Ocoee.