ORLANDO, Fla. – Orlando City Council is deciding on whether or not to grant an annexation request that has many community members and activists upset.
The Mormon Church is the owner of the over 52,000 acres of land in question. It covers a large area between Lake Nona and Brevard County, and also areas as far out as Bithlo. Part of the land is referred to as Deseret Ranch.
Community members showed up to a city of Orlando council meeting, to try to convince city council members not to move forward.
Right now, the area is under the jurisdiction of unincorporated Orange County. There are stricter rules and regulations for developers in Orange County that make it more appealing to be a part of the city of Orlando instead. Taxpayers could end up paying for a lot of the growth.
Activist Lee Perry told News 6, ”Just to build one mile of brand-new road, it’s $25 million. Developers should be paying in on impact fees. But not only are we capped at the impact fees that we currently have due to the state, we’re already capped at, how much we can charge. The city of Orlando is not pressuring developers to pay the full extent of their impact fees.”
According to this group of community activists, annexing undeveloped land to the city of Orlando is also going to be damaging conservation areas and the environment.
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An activist group called “Save Orange County” held a rally ahead of the city council meeting, to try to try to bring awareness to the possible changes ahead.
Activists also say the city is trying to quickly push this annexation through before the voters have a say. In November, county voters will get to weigh in on two amendments on the ballot that, together, would establish a rural boundary.
“We do not have enough water to sustain that many people,” Lee said. “There will not be economic opportunities like jobs, so residents will be stuck on our roads and mostly toll roads to get to and from work. And what we will be doing as taxpayers who are already here is subsidizing the long-term cost of that infrastructure that’s going to be going in.”
Today was the first hearing of the ordinance. By law, they have to have two hearings before they can move forward.
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