Kolter Delays Plan Submission

We’ve promised to keep you updated when we find out anything from the Kolter Group regarding their timelines for submission of the Site Plan to the city staff. As you recall, at their required “Community Engagement Meeting” held in April at the Grove Church, they told us they expected to submit by June 1. We’ve continued to follow up as time has passed and was told they planned to submit late July/early August. We then informed everyone of that plan.

In response to our recent follow up query we received news from Kolter yesterday: they plan to submit their project plans to the city early October.

Our core group of Royal Oak Neighbors has discussed the possible reasons for Kolter’s delay. It seems they don’t want any vote to be taken on their project until after the November elections take place. We strongly suspect their lobbyist (Robin Fisher) is working hard to financially support the candidates for city council that would be most favorable for the Kolter project, and he is working hard to get them elected.

We believe this is critical information for all Royal Oak Neighbors members since elections are upon us.

In fact, early voting for the mayor race starts August 10. By August 20, we will know if 2 top candidates will proceed to the Nov 5 election, or if one candidate gets 50% plus one – that candidate wins on the spot. The other 2 council seats, Seat 2 and 3, will be voted on November 5. We will have more information for you regarding those races and candidates soon, as it could very well determine the approval or denial of the Kolter plan.

Having said that, we believe you should know mayoral candidate Vickie Conklin has worked diligently to represent Royal Oak Neighbors and Apollo Gardens the past 2 years as we work together to preserve our home values and reject rezoning of the golf course.

We’ve all made a difference, or we’d be seeing construction right now. Vickie has not accepted any contributions from developers during this mayor race and is devoted to representing the people, not the developers. We sincerely ask you to consider voting for Vickie as she has already demonstrated her commitment to Royal Oak and know she will continue to represent us well.

We will keep you posted when we hear more. Be assured we are trying very hard to keep on top of this and still exploring more options for acceptable use of the property.

Seeking YOUR assistance in our efforts

We are assembling a history of the Royal Oak Golf Course as a unique aspect of our community and city. There are stories of astronauts in parades ending with lunch at the clubhouse, as well as many weddings, proms and special events.  In addition, well known golfers played there, many whom streets are named after. And Tarzan even practiced yodels in the fairways! What stories do YOU have? What pictures do YOU have?  

With the help of Patty and Gary Bartlett, we will be making a professional video interviewing people who have those memories that need to be preserved. The planning firm will use this video as well when they make their presentation to the city. Let’s tell the story!! We need your help accomplishing this within the next few weeks. It’s ok if the pictures of you are from years ago in the pool. haha

Fighting developers is not free.

We have done a tremendous job for over one year as a grassroots group, but need professionals to get us over the line. Therefore, we’re moving to the fundraising stage since Kolter and Carrfour are actually moving forward and we know the threats are real. The total estimate is between $15-20,000. Please contribute what you can to save our neighborhood. We can’t guarantee we will win, but we can guarantee if we do NOTHING, the developments will happen, and we’ll be stuck with it forever.

You can contriubute online or by check:
Mail check to:
Royal Oak Neighbors LLC
P.O. Box 702
Titusville FL 32781

(Contact any of the core group members via this email; they will pick up your donation and provide a receipt.)