With hundreds of apartments opening in the past year — and thousands more expected to come soon — Sanford leaders are now asking if all the new multi-family dwellings are straining city services.

And is it time for Sanford to slow down that growth, so it can catch up?

“What my concern is: How does the city of Sanford keep up with how rapidly we’re growing?” city Commissioner Sheena Rena Britton said. “I don’t want people to think that we’re against development. We’re all for it. But we want to make sure that we’re well prepared; not just for our residents, but for our visitors as well.”

Commissioners at a recent meeting said Sanford may even need to consider a moratorium — or a temporary halt —on the approval of new apartments. But first they want to understand the impact of all the growth.

Commissioners then asked city staff to compile data on whether Sanford’s police and fire departments have enough manpower and resources to handle the expected population increase.

Sanford leaders also want to know if the city’s aging infrastructure can handle the increased demand for water and wastewater services.

Last month, for example, millions of gallons of partially-treated sewage flowed into Mills Creek and Lake Monroe after a malfunction at an aging Sanford wastewater treatment plant.

Mayor Art Woodruff also noted that it may be time to update the city’s land development rules to include new designs and standards for apartments.

“We set up our current standards 15 or 20 years ago, so we may need to update that code,” he said.

Even so, an apartment moratorium will do little good in the near future, Woodruff said, as more development applications have been recently filed with the city, and a moratorium wouldn’t apply to development applications that have already been submitted.

Today, there are a total of 8,449 apartments within 54 multi-residential complexes scattered over 530 acres across Sanford, according to city data. Ten of those complexes – with a total of just under 1,200 apartments — were constructed within the past two years.

An additional 3,806 units at 17 new complexes are under construction or in the pipeline awaiting development after receiving recent approval. That’s a 45% increase over current numbers.

Many of Sanford’s existing apartment buildings, as well as the new complexes being planned, are within the busy commercial district just south of State Road 46 and east of Interstate 4, where the Seminole Towne Center mall sits.

Woodruff and other commissioners have long said that spot on the city’s west side is well suited for multi-family dwellings because it’s heavily urbanized with restaurants, shops and offices, all within walking distance. The area also is crisscrossed by several busy traffic corridors.

Closer to downtown, apartment complexes are planned along Seminole Boulevard, a scenic roadway overlooking the southern shore of Lake Monroe. Last year, for example, Utah-based Lotus Company filed plans for a 277-unit apartment community near Lake Monroe at the intersection of Seminole Boulevard and French Avenue, according to GrowthSpotter.

After a request by city commissioners last month, police officials recently compiled the total number of calls the department received in 2023 for an officer at older and newer apartment complexes.

According to the data, there were a total of 8,911 calls to Sanford Police for service at 44 apartment complexes that are at least two years old last year.

Of the newer apartment complexes, there were 540 calls for police officers in 2023.

According to the city data, the apartment complexes that generated the most calls include — 773 calls to the Stratford Point Apartments on State Road 46 near Central Park Drive; 700 calls to Seminole Gardens Apartments, on Fifth Street near Mills Creek; 528 to Windchase Apartments, off Old Lake Mary Road; and 452 to Logan Heights Apartments, off U.S. Highway 17-92, just south of State Road 417.

But Commissioner Patrick Austin noted that the Sanford Police Department received more than 108,000 calls in total last year — including at apartments, single-family homes and businesses..

“So in my mind, those calls to apartment complexes, it’s an extremely low number,” he said.

Austin added that Sanford is part of the fast-growing Orlando metropolitan region where thousands of people move in every month and face escalating rent prices.

The average monthly rent at the end of 2023 for a one-bedroom apartment in the Sanford area was roughly $1,250, and $1,760 for a two-bedroom, according to Realtor.com. That’s up 4% from 2022.

With 61,000 residents, Sanford’s per capita income is $27,868 a year, and the median household income is $55,420, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

“If we did a moratorium, that’s going to jack up the rents because of supply and demand,” Austin said. “It’s a slippery slope….Apartments bring in commercial growth, such as shops and restaurants. So there has to be a balance.”

Last year, Sanford commissioners backed off enacting an ordinance that would restrict landlords from raising rents after the state Legislature outlawed local rent-control ordinances.

Commissioners said they plan to continue discussing the issue of an apartment moratorium at the Feb. 26 city meeting with the new city data.

“We’re really just exploring,” Woodruff said. “In recent years we have just had a lot of interest in apartment developments…Probably the old conventional wisdom was that you want a city with a lot of single-family homes and home ownership. But is that still true today? Is that still the trend that people want?”

mcomas@orlandosentinel.com