The Southport / McCoy Annex Vision Plan

During 2001-2002, the City worked closely with residents of the Villages of Southport and the consultant team of Glatting-Jackson to update the Base Reuse Plan for the McCoy Annex to take into account several of the unforeseen changes that had taken place since the 1994 adoption of the original plan.  The first draft of the updated plan, called the Southport / McCoy Annex Vision Plan, was completed in August 2001, and the revised plan was ready by September 2002.

Following additional negotiations between the City of Orlando, the Navy and the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority, the City prepared a final update of the Southport Vision Plan in June 2006.  In the coming months, the City will issue a Request For Proposals (RFP) for a developer team to take on the 278 acres of City property.  We hope that this final phase of redevelopment will be as successful as the Villages of Southport project has been.

What’s New in the Southport Vision Plan?

The Southport / McCoy Annex Vision Plan examines how best to redevelop approximately 278 acres of former Navy property now owned by the City of Orlando.  The result is an updated land use plan and urban design guidelines, showing how these City properties can be used to create a great new community at Southport.

To read the complete Southport Vision Plan click here.  To see the Vision Plan map click here.  The plan envisions the former 100 acre middle portion of the site as the centerpiece of the new community of Southport – a “town center” that would include a supermarket, other retail services and a variety of residential uses, linked seamlessly to the existing neighborhood and the adjoining Southport Community Park.  To the north, the 39-acre site along McCoy Road is seen as a business park that could include offices, a hotel and restaurant(s).  To the south, the old Navy apartments are expected to be demolished and could be replaced by a “golf village” with access to the adjacent Boggy Creek Golf Course.  In fact, the Vision Plan shows how the golf course itself could be expanded to 18 holes.   

The June 2006 Vision Plan Update identifies the possibility that the existing Boggy Creek Golf Course might not remain in operation as the former Navy properties are redeveloped.  In this event, it would be necessary to re-examine potential uses for the old Navy apartment site.  Therefore the Vision Plan Update provides an alternative in which the southerly portion of the old apartment site could be redeveloped as a warehouse / industrial park.  The northerly portion (adjacent to and north of Dowden Road) would be redeveloped as a residential neighborhood.

As noted above, the City will incorporate the Vision Plan into the Request For Proposals (RFP) concerning the development of about 200 acres at the McCoy Annex.  Responses to the RFP will be required to be consistent with the Vision Plan.  This process as was  successfully used in the selection of Orlando Partners as the developer for the NTC Main Base (see Overview of the Baldwin Park Plan).