Florida legislators are on the verge of upending a proposal from a citizens’ committee to ask Orange County voters in November to restrict development on rural lands east and west of Orlando.
The Orange County Charter Review Commission has not yet approved the proposed “Rural Boundary Amendment” suggested by a subcommittee after six months of study, but the possible impacts on future development caught lawmakers’ attention.
The legislative efforts, which have gained public notice only in the last few days, would thwart a major effort to control the area’s growth without letting residents weigh in.
On Wednesday, the Florida Senate voted 38-1 in favor of a measure to block any “citizen-led county charter amendment” proposing to overrule existing land development regulations. The Florida House Friday may discuss a similar prohibition.
State Sen. Geraldine Thompson, D-Orlando, was the lone dissenter. Four other senators whose districts include a piece of Orange County voted for the amendment — three without asking a question or offering a challenge.
“I was just curious,” State Sen. Linda Stewart, D-Orlando, who asked during the debate how many charter commissions across the state were studying the issue of a development boundary intended to keep sprawl from affecting rural communities.
After learning the amendment from Republican Senator Blaise Ingoglia of Spring Hill would affect only Orange County, she voted for it anyway.
Stewart said she didn’t like the amendment tucked into a larger bill but she voted in favor of it because the bill had many other things that were beneficial to residents, from clean energy to homeowner association notification requirements.
Ingoglia could not be reached to explain why he is seeking to regulate development 100 miles from his Gulf Coast district.
The gist of the subcommittee’s plan is to draw boundary lines in sensitive areas around the county beyond which urban-level development would face much higher hurdles to approval.
“It appears they’re gunning for this subcommittee’s work,” Orange County Commissioner Nicole Wilson said of the state Senate, frustrated by a proposed preemption before the local group had even finished work it began last July.
Written by the “Sustainable Growth & Charter Cleanup” subcommittee, the proposed rules for new urban-rural boundaries drew fire in a Feb. 19 charter review commission meeting from developers and west Orange cities, notably Apopka, Ocoee and Winter Garden.
City officials say the rules would interfere with previously negotiated land-use agreements with the county.
“Those are contracts and you simply do not interfere with existing contracts,” said Cliff Shepard, a government law expert who serves as Apopka’s city attorney and who previously advised a Charter Review Commission or CRC.
Orange County Charter Review Commission considers rural boundary amendment
The subcommittee will meet Friday at 1:30 p.m. at the Orange County Administration Building to hear from county staff about land-use contracts known as Joint Planning Area [JPA] agreements with eight municipalities, including Orlando.
“The people have asked us to change how we grow in Orange County,” subcommittee chairman Eric Grimmer said, referring to rural residents who appealed to the charter group after fighting encroaching developments east of the Econ River and in west Orange. “At this point, the detrimental impacts of suburban sprawl are virtually undebatable.”
He said the charter amendment is intended to protect rural lands and green space.
“Suburban sprawl requires new infrastructure that is expensive to build in the short-term and financially infeasible to maintain long-term,” Grimmer said.
But in a Feb. 9 memo to CRC members, Jon Weiss, a deputy county administrator, warned the proposed new boundaries would have “significant implications” for municipalities which have large swaths of land within rural service areas.
Chuck O’Neal, who serves on the subcommittee, suggested the panel “carve out” JPAs with western cities.
“None show up on the east side of the county,” he said.
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