The Central Florida Expressway Authority’s governing board took a key step Thursday in its pursuit of about 44 acres of land in Orange County, including some conservation land, for building a toll road already planned to slice through the protected Split Oak Forest.
The board voted 7-3 to approve a resolution declaring the land as necessary for acquisition.
CFX aims to take just under 3 acres of land within Eagles Roost, a 232-acre park protected through Orange County’s Green PLACE program, for the State Road 534 project, also known as the Osceola Parkway Extension. The agency has a website explaining the details of the road planned to connect State Road 417 in Orange County, near Boggy Creek Road, to Nova Road in Osceola County.
Eagles Roost is home to the recently-reopened Back to Nature wildlife refuge. According to Orange County, it won’t be impacted by the CFX acquisition.
The board’s final approval of the resolution Thursday follows an earlier, initial vote by CFX’s right-of-way committee. That 6-1 vote happened last month, with the committee’s Orange County representative casting the only dissenting vote.
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Of the 10 people who spoke during Thursday’s public comment period, all but one said they were there to share concerns about the State Road 534 project. Among them was Orange County District 1 Commissioner Nicole Wilson, a public interest attorney who has worked on behalf of nonprofit and environmental groups.
“Eagles Roost is not just another parcel of land,” Wilson said. “Just like Split Oak Forest, it was set aside with a promise to our residents: that this land would remain protected for future generations.”
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Wilson called attention to the section of Orange County’s charter defining the county’s public parks and recreation areas as “County Protected Lands.” None of those protected lands — or any portion of them — may be disposed of, or changed to another use, without a supermajority vote from the County Commission, according to the charter.
“Approving this right-of-way acquisition would violate both the spirit and intent of that protection,” Wilson said.
To environmental advocates in Orange County, CFX’s plans for Eagles Roost came as a surprise. But Orange County and CFX have both said that since at least 2019, Eagles Roost has been part of the expressway authority’s preferred alignment for the road.
Wilson takes issue with that chronology, however. And from Orange County, she is requesting a formal correction to the record, according to a post shared to Wilson’s Instagram account later on Thursday afternoon.
Following Thursday’s public comment period, Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings made a motion to pull the State Road 534 item for discussion, instead of immediately approving it along with the rest of the board’s consent agenda. Brevard County District 1 Commissioner Katie Delaney seconded the motion, opening the item for discussion.
Demings said he wanted to discuss the resolution before voting on it to clarify for the public “what this item would do or not do.” He also said he wanted to better understand whether the properties with conservation protections are “absolutely necessary for this project to move forward.”
Pressimone confirmed the alignment impacting parts of those properties “is necessary for the road.” He also said it’s consistent with what Orange County commissioners approved in December 2019.
Since that time, as Demings said Thursday, commissioners have changed their stance on the road. And county voters overwhelmingly approved a 2020 charter amendment protecting Split Oak Forest, which is in both Orange and Osceola counties. Still, the current road alignment requires impacts to part of Split Oak.
A tally of acreage targeted within each parcel shows at least 44 acres of land are being declared as necessary for the State Road 534 project. For Eagles Roost, it’s just under 3 acres the agency aims to acquire.
The 44 acres also includes just under 20 acres, for land within the planned development of Eagle Creek. Some of that land is protected by a conservation easement.
“Our citizens really aren't liking this. They're trying to keep Orange County from being a huge metropolis,” said Orange County District 2 Commissioner Christine Moore. “It's hard for me to vote for this today, because I know where my citizens are.”
Orange County resident Bradley Hardee introduced himself to the board as a father and an outdoors enthusiast. He said he’s against the proposed toll road as currently planned because it compromises what makes Central Florida so special: its green spaces.
“We're trying to build, basically, a second beltway around Orlando,” Hardee said. “We don't want that. People moving here don't want that.
“Are we going to be remembered for protecting Central Florida?” Hardee asked the board. “Or are we going to sell it off piece by piece?”
Osceola County Commission Vice Chair Brandon Arrington said he recognizes the difficulty that comes with balancing environmental and private property interests against infrastructure needs. But simply put, he said, Central Florida’s rapid growth warrants the State Road 534 project.
“It's always challenging building a new road,” Arrington said. “As challenging as it is … to build a new corridor— whether that's taking someone's home or someone's environmental land — it is a real conundrum that we live with here in the state of Florida.”
But with transportation delays galore and Osceola County’s population projected to double over the next 25 years, Arrington said, there’s little choice but to move forward with the planned toll road.
“It is up to us as local governments to meet those population projections,” Arrington said.
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Demings said Arrington’s point raises a much larger, regional issue: short-sighted planning. In particular, Central Florida’s mass transit options are seriously lacking and must be enhanced, Demings said.
“If we don't address a multi-modal solution to moving people around, if we don't better address our comprehensive plans, or how we build communities … then we are going to continue being faced with having to build roads,” Demings said. “And building only roads is going to continue to result in the conundrum that we have now, where we will impact environmentally sensitive lands.
“If we want to preserve a high quality of life with pristine water bodies, et cetera, for well into the future … we have got to do a better job of planning, across the region,” Demings said.
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Commissioner Delaney said she understands concerns on both sides of the issue. On the one hand, she said she greatly appreciates the roughly 1,500 acres of mitigation land CFX is offering in exchange for “a small chunk” of Split Oak Forest.
But Delaney, who was just elected to the Brevard Commission in November, said she also empathizes with the overdevelopment concerns shared by members of the public Thursday.
Just a year ago, “I was sitting right out … in these seats myself,” Delaney said. “It's really frustrating when we have the state putting things down on us; when we can't even control our own communities, even though it's supposed to be bottom up and not top down.
“It's really a struggle for me. … I thank the staff so much for doing the best you can out of this situation,” Delaney said. “But in my conscience, I just can't support this [resolution].”
Ultimately, Delaney, Demings and Moore voted against the resolution.
Following the resolution’s passage Thursday, the value of the properties targeted for acquisition will be appraised, according to CFX Deputy General Counsel Cristina Berrios. Then, CFX will approach property owners — including Orange County — with a first written offer, kicking off a negotiation process.
“If those conversations do not come up with some kind of fruitful conclusion, then we would have the right, under our statute … to then initiate condemnation actions,” Berrios said. “Obviously, CFX is wanting to partner with the county to find some kind of alternatives.”
