Orlando-based developer Khaled Hussein is teaming up with Park Square Homes to introduce a new single-family home community directly across the Chapel Hill Cemetery in east Orange County.

According to a recent Technical Review Group application filed in Orange County, Hussein is seeking to rezone four parcels of mostly undeveloped land directly east of Harrell Road from A2 to PD.

A majority of the roughly 17 acres is owned by a trust that lists Jacqueline M. Lloyd and Sheryl Meeks as trustees. Felix and Delfina Bon Pastrana own the remaining 4.6 acres just north of the Little Econlockhatchee River and the Little Econ Greenway.

Under the current zoning, the partners would be capped at one dwelling unit per every 10 acres. Park Square CEO Suresh Gupta said they’re looking to build 67 single-family market-rate homes.

AVCON Inc. is the civil engineer behind the project called Harrell Oaks. Hussein, of Cedar Engineering Consultants, was not immediately available to comment.

The property straddles Trevarthon Road and is near the S.R. 417 and East Colonial Drive interchange.

Surrounded by a small white fence, the Chapel Hill Cemetery to the propery’s left features a well-kept green field with neat rows of gravestone markers.

Though an unusual site to neighbor, the cemetery wasn’t a deal breaker for partners, who are known for taking on challenging projects.

In 2016, they partnered to close on a deal of land at 1021 S. Dean Road, ready for single family development — the catch being there was a sinkhole at the center of the property filled with 25 feet of muck.

The Harrell Oaks property also lies in east Orlando near the University of Central Florida, where a number of investors are actively re-positioning multifamily and student housing complexes.

One of the latest examples is Horizon Realty Advisors’ $65 million purchase of The Glenn apartments on University Boulevard. Last year, the company made its foray into Orlando when it bought the nearby 384-bed student housing complex dubbed The Quad.

A Tampa-based homebuilder wants to do away with plans to build timeshare units near Ruby Lake, and instead build up to 400 multifamily units along with additional commercial space.

The change is being sought by Bering Homes, which recently reactivated the shelved Tierra Del Sol resort development near ChampionsGate in Polk County.

Planner Jim Hall of Hall Development Services filed the Land Use Plans on behalf of Bering LLC, led by Chad R. O’Brien. It’s set to go before Orange County’s Development Review Committee this week.

If approved, plans would allow for up to 400 multifamily units and 15,000 square feet of commercial space. The request would replace previous entitlements calling for 420 timeshare units with 30,000 square feet of commercial space.

A conceptual site plan for the property shows the development is geared to townhome construction. Representatives for Bering Homes could not be reached for comment.

Bering Homes is also asking Orange County to change the Future Land Use Designation of the property from Activity Center Mixed-Use to Planned Development Commercial/Medium-High Density Residential.

The area has seen a flurry of new development over the past couple years, mostly from Pulte Homes. The home developer has amassed more than 157 acres of land bordering the lake for projects including Pulte Phillips Grove, Pulte’s Ruby Lake and Overlook at Ruby Lake.

In Polk County, Bering Homes received county approval in December to build up to 252 short-term rental townhomes, as part of a larger 159-acre resort project at the corner of U.S. 27 and Bella Citta Boulevard.

A new study commissioned by the Florida Department of Transportation has confirmed what local transit enthusiasts have promised: SunRail is proving to be a good investment.

Property values around the first 12 stations increased by $2.4 billion (63 percent) from 2011-2017, and FDOT estimates that $1.19 billion of that is directly attributable to SunRail. Each station has drawn new development, and most experienced a sharp increase in property values that outpaced their surrounding areas by nearly 23 percent.

The research team from Florida State University first analyzed the property value impact of SunRail in 2015, but at that time, the system had only been operational for two years. Now, with three more years of data, the team determined that property values in the station areas are escalating at a higher rate as the system matures.

In 2016, for example, the station area property values grew at twice the rate as their surrounding neighborhoods. Last year the station area values grew at seven times the rate of the comparable neighborhoods.

“In this way, SunRail has provided promising indications that it may continue to spur development and boost local property values in the coming years,” it found.

Investment and appreciation around the stations has generated $18 million in taxable revenue for the local jurisdictions. But higher property values haven’t always translated to increased revenues because so much of the property around the two hospital stations is tax exempt.

Like its companion ridership study by MetroPlan Orlando, the property value analysis did not take into account the SunRail’s southern extension, which opened this past summer. It also doesn’t count new Transit Oriented Development projects until they come on the tax roll, so major projects like Maitland Station Apartments are not included.

The Church Street station area ranked first system wide with a 125-percent increase in property value over the seven-year study period. But that number was buoyed in 2012 by the opening of Amway Center, which accounted for $275 million of the $333 million in new property value for that year.

The overwhelming majority of new value — 95 percent — has been centered around the Orange County stations. The five station areas in Seminole and Volusia counties gathered a combined $102.1 million in property values, with a decline of $543 thousand in the Altamonte Springs station area.

The suburban stations, while not experiencing the massive influx of new development seen in downtown Orlando and Winter Park, nevertheless saw “notable shifts in development patterns” away from single family homes to multifamily and mixed-use apartments.