Oviedo, Sanford urge legislators to kill ‘horrendous' rural development bills

Yahoo

01-04-2025

Elected leaders in two of Seminole County's largest cities — Sanford and Oviedo — are blasting proposed state legislation that would make it easier to develop the county's rural lands.
'They are certainly developer driven,' Oviedo Mayor Megan Sladek said regarding proposed Senate Bill 1118 and companion House Bill 1209, which would overturn many land development regulations, including some that have been in place for decades.
On Monday, she joined fellow council members and Sanford commissioners in support of sending sharply worded letters to state legislators, calling on them to reject the bills.
'I would rather increase density in the city, where it is less costly to provide services than in rural areas. This is what our constituents have said they want,' Sanford Mayor Art Woodruff said before his city's commissioners also voted unanimously in opposition to the proposed legislation at a separate meeting.
David Bear, president of the non-profit Save Rural Seminole, urged Oviedo and Sanford — whose borders either abut or are close to the county's rural boundary — to send the missives. He called the bills 'horrendous.'
The proposed legislation 'doesn't automatically eliminate Seminole's [rural boundary] line. However, it makes the line functionally irrelevant through a Tallahassee approval process,' Bear said. A developer 'wouldn't have to come in front of a Seminole County board for a public hearing.'
Established by voters in 2004, Seminole's rural boundary covers nearly one third of Seminole, much of it east of the Econlockhatchee River and Lake Jesup. Development densities within the boundary are mostly limited to one home per five acres or one home per 10 acres.
Last November, Seminole voters overwhelmingly approved charter amendments to tighten the rules, requiring supermajority votes by county commissioners — or at least four votes on the five-member board — to remove and develop property within the boundary.
The proposed Senate bill, filed by Sen. Stan McClain, R-Ocala, would wipe out the 2024 referendums.
It would leave Seminole's 2004 rural boundary in place, but with a significant modification. Under the legislation, a developer's request to develop an agricultural enclave — land that abuts existing zoning for residential, industrial or commercial development — would not even require a public hearing, Oviedo officials said.
Local governments have long been required by the state to have land development regulations — known as comprehensive plans — that can be amended only through public hearings before local boards, Oviedo City Manager Bryan Cobb said.
But the proposed legislation 'says that doesn't matter. You will approve this [development] without any due process,' he said.
In Orange County, the proposed Senate bill would undo two charter amendments approved by voters last year — one that created a rural boundary and another that limited annexations initiated by developers.
The proposed bills have been a priority for the Florida Home Builders Association and Deseret Ranches, the real estate arm of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, which owns hundreds of thousands of acres of land spread across east Orange.
The Senate bill was quickly approved in its first committee hearing last month. But as of Tuesday, neither bill has been scheduled for additional committee hearings.
'They would like to develop in the rural boundary,' Oviedo Council member Natalie Teuchert said of bill supporters. 'It disregards what voters voted on.'
Sanford Commissioner Claudia Thomas was more blunt.
'Put it in all caps and in bold face,' she said in recommending how Sanford should write the letter in opposition.