Osceola vote sets course for major transformation of Central Florida

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The growth of Central Florida for the rest of the 21st century was set in motion by Osceola County commissioners last week when they adopted a blueprint for the future that would transform 133,000 acres of idyllic ranchland into a major new urban area of 500,000 people.

If the land-use changes adopted by Osceola commissioners Monday pass state review, they will have cleared a key legal hurdle that would make way for the largest single development in Florida history.

In 50 years, one of the least populated areas of Florida, straddling Osceola, Orange and Brevard counties, would blossom into a megalopolis larger than Orlando, Kissimmee, Apopka and Winter Park combined.

"You can't plan growth," said Deseret Ranch manager Erik Jacobsen. "You can only plan for it. It's going to come. … When it all comes together, I hope people say, 'Hey, this makes a lot of sense.'"

Deseret Ranch
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Deseret Ranch
GEORGE SKENE, ORLANDO SENTINEL
Deseret Ranch cowboys bring in the spring herd. They get started at sunrise. May 2, 2012
Deseret Ranch
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Deseret Ranch
GEORGE SKENE, ORLANDO SENTINEL
Gerald Burnett, Steven Wall, and Clint Vaughn were part of the Florida winning team in the working cowboy competition.
The plan, worked out by the owners of Deseret Ranch and Osceola County leaders, also has the support of a key environmental advocate: Charles Lee of the Audubon Society. But Lee doesn't speak for other environmentalists, who criticize the review process as lacking adequate checks and balances and who predict that taxpayers will be stuck with a lot of the costs.

New 'urban centers'

The agricultural "North Ranch" part of Deseret, now bisected only by one-lane roads and populated mostly by cattle, would in 50 years become home to possibly about a dozen densely populated "urban centers," several "employment centers" and a "central business district," all with housing designed to be within a half-mile of commuter rail, light rail or rapid-transit bus lines.

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Development is not expected to even begin for 25 years. But that will give the county and state time to plan for the four major highways expected to bisect the area designed to connect the tech-heavy sectors of east Orlando and southern Brevard County, said Osceola County Growth Management Director Jeff Jones.

"Growing at the rate we're growing, we're trying to get out front and put in place the things we need to have in order to avoid sprawling," Jones said.

About half the land would be protected in some way — either as conservation lands, wetlands, open space and recreational lands, or agricultural lands. But some of that agricultural acreage includes the potential site of a new 2,000-acre reservoir, one of the sore points for environmentalists opposed to the deal, along with the amount of protected lands and water rights.

Backers of the deal, however, including Lee, say the Osceola comprehensive plan provides the best way of controlling and managing inevitable growth — in a way that creates dense, walkable city centers connected by transit instead of the piecemeal sprawl that's occurred during the last 50 years.

Future framework map
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What Deseret Ranch might look like in 45 years with the addition of urban centers, roads and rail. (Deseret Ranches)

But Lee, who had expressed much of the same environmental concerns earlier this year, gave one particularly compelling reason why he eventually backed the agreement adopted by Osceola leaders Monday:

Deseret Ranch had no obligation to even bother drafting a plan.

"It's an optional process to begin with," Lee said. "Deseret was in the driver's seat. They could have walked away any day and said, 'OK, we'll do what other developers do and develop 500 acres at a time.' And for the environmental outlook, that's the worst outcome."

Largest landowner

The Deseret ranch — purchased six decades ago by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the largest private landowner in the state — sprawls for 290,000 acres across Osceola, Orange and Brevard counties.

The ranch owners haven't sold off any land for development so far, but the expected pressures from builders as the population grows — plus legal fights over water with Cocoa, Orlando and Orange County — led them to push for a "sector plan" to lay out how almost two-thirds of the ranch would be zoned and how much lands would be protected.

The details of transit policy, which includes goals of high-density urban centers connected by rail and bus, were among the biggest revisions since an initial plan was sent to the state for review in May, as well as an additional 2,000 acres of conserved land, up to 38,566 acres in total.

"If you do a planned development, it requires you set aside 20 percent [for] open space," Jones said. "Right upfront because of this process, 50 percent is set aside. And that's only going to get larger as you go through other steps in the process."

Lee, along with other environmentalists, had pushed for the county and ranch to accept a peer-review study and include 19,000 more acres of protected lands. Jacobsen and Don Whyte, Deseret vice president of planning, said the review was a piece of data that would be looked at like all others, though the 19,000 extra acres were not included.

But Lee said, "Ironically, if you look at the actual language, conservation land within developed areas ... is going to be another 19,000 acres of open space: parks, trails, wildlife corridors and other conservation lands."

In addition, Lee said, if Osceola County or the state had tried to buy the 38,566 conserved acres, it would cost upward of $150 million.

Other environmental groups involved in the process still opposed the deal, however.

"It's a terrible plan," said Katrina Veaudry of the Florida Native Plant Society. "It's a plan developed by developers with no checks and balances by local government. Osceola was a joint applicant with the developer. …

"This is a development twice the size of Orlando, one the largest developments ever set forth in the U.S., and the lack of [oversight] is appalling."

The area is the only connection between North and South Florida for numerous wildlife species, Veaudry said. The second reservoir, she added, was rejected when first proposed in the 1960s and would affect the flow of the St. Johns River and its tributaries as far as Georgia.

"Potable-water availability is a big issue in the region for the next 50 years," responded Jacobsen. "A reservoir is a viable, long-term water supply, and we felt very strongly it be considered."

Lee noted that the reservoir is not a done deal, and there's still a possibility that it would remain agricultural land. Jones said the possible construction of the reservoir was now out of the county's hands and would be up to the state water-management district and the Army Corps of Engineers.

Veaudry also cited potential costs.

"This is a huge chunk of Florida, and it's going to affect the rest of the state," she said. "Who do you think is going to be paying for this urban sprawl and getting roads through the middle of nowhere? Taxpayers have no idea what's coming."

Lee, meanwhile, was circumspect about the opportunity to plan out growth decades in advance.

"Just imagine, if you look at the rest of Osceola County," Lee said. "If 30 to 40 years ago, someone decided to do a plan like this for the county in the west, and 56 percent was set aside for parks and open space — if this was laid on a map before a single subdivision or a single road was built — imagine how different Osceola County would be."

slemongello@tribpub.com or 407-418-5920

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