The School Board of Orange County may just cause all residential construction in the area to halt indefinitely. The board wanted to erect a new relief high school at the County Road 535, on Beck Property and was denied permission for the same by Orange County.
The School Board and Orange County entered into a dispute in the last week of February, when the Board shelved the impact fee payments of a developer, Windermere Development Co., of the west Orange County area indefinitely.
School Board tables impact fee payment
The payment, amounting to $27,000 was due on February 25, to be paid to the board as impact fees for the development of project Canopy Oaks – a 59-units residential complex to be built by Mason Simpson and his development company Windermere.
Orlando realtors hold the proximity of Canopy Oaks to the site where the new relief school is supposed to be erected, one of the primary reasons for the dispute. It was confirmed by the School Board later when a board member revealed that the board wanted to wait for the disputes over its petition in the circuit court.
The board had filed the lawsuit in December 2013 and insiders say it may take up to a year to reach a settlement. Joie Cadle, member of the board said the West Orange High School was already crowded and needed a relief. The lack of a proper relief plan was one of the reasons why Cadle and other members of the five-school board voted in favor of tabling the impact-fees payments.
Is the School Board trying to jeopardize construction in Orange County?
Cost of the Canopy Oaks project has been projected around $30 million and Orlando real estate industry-insiders are worried about the longer-term impacts of such a decision by the board. With Winter Garden regulators halting the processing of Canopy Oaks project’s engineering application, Mason Simpson stands to lose some big bucks.
According to Nathan Cross, the president of the Home Builders Association of Metro Orlando, the situation is more grim than what realtors in Orlando have been contemplating. According to him, Lake Nona and West Orange were the only two places conducive for new construction projects in the Orange County and the School Board essentially cut down one of the them, for at least a year.
Chairman of the School Board, Bill Sublette, however, has something else to say. Sublette, who voted against shelving the impact-fee payments, says the board doesn’t intend to stop construction projects in Orange County. The board just wants to halt the project till the location of the new relief school is finalized.
The circuit court is scheduled to meet in April for mediation on the lawsuit.
