ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – An amendment on the November ballot will give voters in Orange County a chance to restrict development in rural areas.
Ordinance 24-1068, also known as the Rural Boundary Proposal, would establish a rural area and rural boundary, as shown below on the map. It would require a majority-plus-one vote of the commission to either approve more urban development on property located in the rural boundary or to remove property from it altogether.
Dozens signed up to speak on the issue at a public hearing before the final vote Tuesday afternoon. Commissioners approved it unanimously. It will now go on the November ballot as an amendment to the county’s charter.
[RELATED: Some Orange County residents want a rural boundary. What does that mean?]
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Ordinance 24-1069, also known as the Voluntary Annexation Proposal, would require a majority-plus-one vote of the commission to approve voluntary annexations with the rural area.
The municipality also has to provide notice to Orange County 10 days before the first public hearing. However, even if annexed, the county would still be in charge of development regulations of property in the rural area. This amendment would not apply to municipalities that have a joint planning agreement with the county.
“So what this is an actual procedural amendment to our charter that allows that requires a super majority if there’s a land use change in the rural boundary outside the urban service area where we know it’s more expensive, where we know we have to run the sewer lines, we need to work on getting roads, so those things are consequential to every single resident whether they live in a rural area or not,” Commissioner Nicole Wilson said.
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The debate has been tense between those who are against growth and those who say development is needed to keep up with the number of people moving into Central Florida.
“Well the reality is so much of the urban sprawl that we have seen that has annexed a lot of land outside of the City of Orlando for example other municipalities, so much of the housing being built is not affordable housing. It is not affordable it is not obtainable housing, which is supposed to be the supply that we’re building to address that demand,” Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith said.
Mayors and city officials from several cities including Orlando, Apopka, Belle Isle, Eatonville, Edgewood, Oakland, Maitland, Winter Garden, Ocoee and Windermere signed a letter to Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings opposing the measures last week.
In that strongly-worded letter, officials wrote they are concerned the proposals go against the “home rule,” adopted to the Florida Constitution in 1968 which reads: “Municipalities shall have governmental, corporate and proprietary powers to enable them to conduct municipal government, perform municipal functions and render municipal services, and may exercise power for municipal purposes except as otherwise provided by law.”
It goes on to say the measures would actually make conservation goals worse: “An imprudently located or unwisely rigid rural boundary set without the appropriate consideration of the greater regional and statewide growth trajectory and without considering the needs, opportunities, and controls within our towns and cities will 1) exacerbate rather than mitigate exurban and suburban sprawl and 2) adversely impact intracity efforts. Driving growth away from the Central Florida urban core and impacting the efforts of each of our municipalities would ultimately undermine statewide conservation goals and further aggravate the serious undersupply of housing and other needs in our region.”
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Orange County Mayors' Letter by News 6 WKMG-TV on Scribd
The letter also challenges senior county staff to meet with representatives from each city before the meeting, saying some cities have requested meetings but have received no response from the county.
But representatives in favor of the proposal say they just want to preserve the land and rural neighborhoods they love so much.
Save Orange County, Inc. was founded by a group of neighbors more than 10 years ago to promote keeping rural zoning rural. They have been against plans like those for Lake Pickett Developments, the proposed Sunbridge annexation as well as other plans to expand toll roads in rural areas.
The group plans to speak before the 2 p.m. vote Tuesday with a press conference at 8 a.m. but released the following statement prior to that.
“We hope to convince the county commission on Tuesday to give voters the ability to vote on the November 5th ballot for a legally-defined rural boundary that will add extra protections for what remains of Orange County rural areas.”
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