Lake Nona Should I be concerned with Proposed East Airfield Development? (Orlando: 2013, foreclosure)

[OMG1]

I am relocating to Orlando area from Arizona and I have been looking at a few different neighborhoods in the Lake Nona Area. Waters Edge,North Lake Park, Village Walk, Eagle Creek, and Laureate Park. So far I like the floor plans/prices in Waters Edge and North Lake Park (older homes) but a concern about these 2 neighborhoods is their proximity to the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority proposed East Airfield Development which expands the airport from the current most eastern runway to Narcoossee Rd and from 528 to Dowden Rd. These area is huge and it seems that most of the development will include high intensity users such as plane maintenance, manufacturing hangars, and cargo facilities Another big portion will be aviation building offices, training centers, and air traffic control facilities. It seems that current residents of these neighborhoods have already expressed their concerns about safety, traffic, noise, visual pollution, flooding, declining home values, and environmental impact but I am not sure anyone is listening. I appreciate any thoughts on this? Should I rule out these 2 neighborhoods in Lake Nona? Any other neighborhoods that I should be considering? Thanks!

[912]

Well I'd rule them out!

[brerjeff]

Originally Posted by OMG1

I am relocating to Orlando area from Arizona and I have been looking at a few different neighborhoods in the Lake Nona Area. Waters Edge,North Lake Park, Village Walk, Eagle Creek, and Laureate Park. So far I like the floor plans/prices in Waters Edge and North Lake Park (older homes) but a concern about these 2 neighborhoods is their proximity to the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority proposed East Airfield Development which expands the airport from the current most eastern runway to Narcoossee Rd and from 528 to Dowden Rd. These area is huge and it seems that most of the development will include high intensity users such as plane maintenance, manufacturing hangars, and cargo facilities Another big portion will be aviation building offices, training centers, and air traffic control facilities. It seems that current residents of these neighborhoods have already expressed their concerns about safety, traffic, noise, visual pollution, flooding, declining home values, and environmental impact but I am not sure anyone is listening. I appreciate any thoughts on this? Should I rule out these 2 neighborhoods in Lake Nona? Any other neighborhoods that I should be considering? Thanks!

That's just the north end of Lake Nona that would be impacted. The south end where Artisan Park and the proposed Southlake Park will be would not be impacted by that. There is also Village Walk and numerous neighborhoods to the east of Lake Nona that are nice as well. But I would (and did) stear clear of Northlake Park and ended up in the Lake Hart area to the east.

Edit: I didn't read your post thoroughly, I see you already mentioned a couple of the neighborhoods in my post

[usp2]

Did you read somewhere that these expansion plans are reactivated? Last I checked they were put on hold years ago because of the economic downturn. If they do reactivate the expansion plans construction could take many years.

I live in Northlake Park and I think the expansion of the airport would be a good thing. Right now that airport land between 528 and Dowden Rd is 1000+ acres of empty space. Expanding it should increase home prices if it increases jobs in the area and also attract more businesses to the area, which is one of the main deficiencies of the Lake Nona neighborhood. Much of the Lake Nona commercial space sits vacant and the promised Lake Nona Town Center mall was shelved, all because of the recession.

I wouldn’t rule out those two neighborhoods at all. Northlake Park and Waters Edge are two of the better neighborhoods in all of Orlando. Waters Edge is almost fully developed now and it takes 6+ months to build a house. I don’t think there are too many resales there yet since most of the houses are brand new and they have HOA rules preventing rentals and quick resales.

The individuals that will be negatively impacted by the airport expansion are the subset that live on the outer edge that overlook what is currently wilderness area.

Tip: with Village Walk, airplanes fly directly over the western part of it. Airplanes also fly over Laureate Park. The airplanes can be extremely loud. That is why I ruled out Lee Vista when looking for a place to live. Airplanes mostly take off in the southern direction, although the noise in central Village Walk didn't seem that bad to me. Airplanes rarely fly over Lake Nona or Waters Edge.

In Village Walk, note that the houses don't have mailboxes. You have to go to the post office to get or send your mail, which could mean 20 minutes in the car just to check mail if you are in the lower area. Some houses in Village Walk also have a rail line going past them.

[brerjeff]

I have to say I was very impressed with Water's Edge and my wife and I actually liked the fact it was literally next to the airport. It also didn't really bother me that they might eventually have giant gasoline storage tanks right next door. I was just a little worried about future resale value and it was just a little too expensive at the time. But I agree that Water's Edge and Northlake Park are very nice neighborhoods.

[LUVFL1975]

I purchased a home in Water's Edge at the end of May, so this subject is of great interest to me. Unfortunately, I'm not sure the expansion has ever been tabled...this draft response document from GOAA is online and dated quite recently (June 2011 according to the document title listed in the URL). It mentions NLP and Water's Edge specifically in "B5".

I loved the area so I bought the house anyway. Government is notoriously slow to develop anything, I hope I'll never be staring at fuel tanks from my living room.


http://www.orlandoairports.net/east_...ppendix_LL.pdf

[Downtown Steve]

If you want a sure thing, it wouldn't be wise to move into an undeveloped area? Positive things you are expecting could take forever to come into fruition, developers could convince a current or future county board to change land code causing things you never expected to happen.

[Gr8Guyn08]

Originally Posted by OMG1

I am relocating to Orlando area from Arizona and I have been looking at a few different neighborhoods in the Lake Nona Area. Waters Edge,North Lake Park, Village Walk, Eagle Creek, and Laureate Park. So far I like the floor plans/prices in Waters Edge and North Lake Park (older homes) but a concern about these 2 neighborhoods is their proximity to the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority proposed East Airfield Development which expands the airport from the current most eastern runway to Narcoossee Rd and from 528 to Dowden Rd. These area is huge and it seems that most of the development will include high intensity users such as plane maintenance, manufacturing hangars, and cargo facilities Another big portion will be aviation building offices, training centers, and air traffic control facilities. It seems that current residents of these neighborhoods have already expressed their concerns about safety, traffic, noise, visual pollution, flooding, declining home values, and environmental impact but I am not sure anyone is listening. I appreciate any thoughts on this? Should I rule out these 2 neighborhoods in Lake Nona? Any other neighborhoods that I should be considering? Thanks!

Recognizing that this thread is a bit old and the OP has probably selected a location to live my comments and opinions may be of use to someone else looking at the Lake Nona area.

I have spent about 4 years looking all over the Lake Nona area for a place to live. The east airport expansion in itself should not be of much concern, the concern would come from a possible major increase of traffic on Narcoosee and possibly 528. I have never found aircraft noise to be a problem in any of the Lake Nona communities though the noise is probably a bit louder in Village walk and Laureate Park than in Northlake Park / Waters Edge. Any of the newer homes are well sound proofed so noise inside should not be a problem but it would be something that you may want to consider checking if you are planning to entertain a lot outside.

1. The nicest communities are Waters Edge and Village Walk.
2. The best builder, IMO as an engineer, is Ashton Woods who is building in Laureate Park. DeVosta who built the older sections of Village Walk built well constructed houses. I suspect Pulte who is currently building in Village Walk is also building quality homes.
3. Northlake Park has different areas in it that range from lower end starter homes whose construction would be typical to that type of home to larger high end custom and semi-custom homes that are much nicer in all aspects.
4. Waters Edge is a Park Square development and are the principle builder and in early 2012 they sold a number of lots to Ryland Homes. Park Square has the best floor plans. Ryland is much more open to customizing their homes, often at no up-charge. Park Square will resist any change and charges large sums for everything that is different from the options list. Both builders use similar quality materials in the construction but neither builder is particularly good at quality execution. Personal knowledge, Park Square has no concern to build a quality house or follow their plans.
5. Nothlake Park, Waters Edge and Village Walk offer the best collection of amenities, of course the HOA fees reflect that. Laureate Park offers few amenities. The same for other Lake Nona communities that were not mentioned in the OP. Gated Communities are prevalent in the Lake Nona area, Village Walk and Waters Edge are guarded, others are not. I would not rate Village Walk as particularly kid friendly, it is more geared toward singles or young professional without children or older families whose children have left the nest.
6. Home construction in the Lake Nona area is exploding at the time of this post. There are new communities and other builders in the area. The area generally escaped the foreclosure crisis of the late 2000s and resales are few in the area.

Just my opinions and perceptions.

[Just_Sayin]

This is an old post, but as a concerned resident of the area, I wanted to update/clarify a couple of things from the posts above for those researching the original author's concerns about East Airfield Expansion in the Lake Nona area:

Are expansion plans still active? Hell, yeah! GOAA submitted updated plans as recently as Feb 2013. They propose to develop the 1,300+ acre site just north of Dowden Road with 2 million square feet of mostly "high-intensity industrial" uses by 2018, and another 4 million by 2030. Permit processes are moving forward with FAA and USACE. They've had a little setback with EPA who has questioned why they insist on clearing literally ever acre of the 200+ acres of wetlands on site (but that's likely a minor speed bump with current jobs demand). Local approvals (zoning) are planned for later this year. Plans for buffering the expansion from residents just south of Dowden Road are still woefully insufficient and many of those residents continue to work toward a more favorable outcome.

Some above mentioned this is only a NorthLake Park/Waters Edge issue. Absolutely false! GOAA will not be contributing a cent to widen any of the local roads they will choke with this project (Federal law actually forbids them to). Think of all the trucks 6 million square feet of industrial use will put on Narcoossee and other surrounding roads.

Also, imagine the convenience of locating this amount of industrial on the east side of the east runway for...CARGO FLIGHTS! The east runway is underutilized today for passenger traffic because it's located so far form the terminal. Why wouldn't GOAA use it in the future to support whatever industry ends up on East Airfield? The problem with cargo flights = heavier loads, older aircraft (more noise, bigger polluters), and night operations. And these more frequent, noisier, dirtier flights won't be flying over NorthLake Park/Waters Edge...they'll be over VillageWalk, Laureate Park, Eagle Creek, and the rest of south Orange and Osceola. Besides the traffic and noise, the potential health concerns from these operations effects the whole area.

That said, I haven't given up hope yet that the final product is something we all can eventually be proud of. Anyone in the area who wants to help protect themselves from the current misguided plan for East Airfield (or to just stay informed) can reach out to NorthLake Park's HOA through their website (northlakepark.org). They continue to work toward getting GOAA to address the concerns and develop the site responsibility.

[usp2]

Thanks for the update. I thought I read in the newspaper that the plans to add another terminal was killed recently because taxpayers thought it was a pointless waste of money since the airport currently had plenty of capacity. The plans to add a train terminal at the airport was strongly opposed by the airlines, who apparently are forced by contract to contribute money to airport infrastructure work, but it was still on track.

I don't mind an expansion if it brings more good jobs to the area, along with more retail establishments. I have a feeling that medical city isn't enough for developers to start up that mall development again, and there is a lack of retail in this corner of Orlando.

Narcoossee at the present time rarely has any traffic congestion and it was designed to handle far more traffic than it currently does. I would think most delivery trucks and industrial traffic would access the airport from the north or south airport entrances off of the highways, instead of going down Narcoossee and Dowden and dealing with narrower roads and traffic lights.

The mention of more cargo flights makes me more worried for those residents in older houses north of the airport. I read that those houses were not built with the same noise insulation and noise is a huge issue for residents around Lee Vista and Vista Lakes. I have been actively shopping for houses. When I was in Laureate Park there was a steady stream of airplanes flying overhead that were noisy outside, but I don’t remember hearing them inside the house. When I was in a house in the golf club community just north of the mega church above Curry Ford Rd, there was also a steady stream of airplanes, and they were very audible inside the house with all the windows and doors closed. Then entire house filled with airplane noise every 10 minutes.

In Northlake Park I hear approximately one airplane a day that for some reason flies directly overhead.