Lake Mary Jane Alliance Opposition to Innovation Way East BCC May 11, 2010

The Lake Mary Jane Alliance The Lake Mary Jane Alliance is a large and active grassroots group originally made up of property owners in the 4 neighborhoods of the Lake Mary Jane Rural Settlement. Over the past 4 years, residents throughout Southeast Orlando have asked to join our Alliance to keep informed of development concerns in our area. Our mission and continuing critical interest is protection of the area’s rural lifestyle, the health of our lakes, the viability of our water supplies, the preservation of our wildlife corridors and our still relatively pristine environment, and avoiding any locally caused impacts on the broader Central Florida region..

“Central Florida residents desire a future where the region consumes less land, preserves more precious environmental resources and natural countryside, creates more distinctive places to live in both rural and urban areas, and provides more choices for how people travel.” “We can continue our current pattern of development, which will cause us to consume land at a rapid pace, encroach on critical environmental resources, lose the distinctiveness of our communities, and paralyze our residents and businesses in traffic.” Or, we can boldly choose a different approach where we conserve our environment, strengthen our urban centers, and provide a variety of choices for how we live, work, travel, raise our families, and enjoy our free time. “ The Alliance supports SMART GROWTH

Innovation Way Innovation Way is the County’s vision to preplan development in Southeast Orlando to create a high tech corridor connecting UCF to the Airport and the planned Medical City. The majority of residents support this initial concept – but as the details are being defined – there are still numerous concerns about the environment, future water supply, jobs NOT linked to housing, transportation & funding.

Study Area In 2005 (during the real estate boom) the county reviewed this area to determine how to plan the corridor. “The overall intent of the STUDY is to strike a balance between the need and obligation to protect the area’s environmental resources and to provide opportunities for sustainable economic development.”

Adopted Plan Scenario 5 was adopted “.. offering a compact urban core in the Innovation Way Corridor with compact villages adjacent to the corridor.” Residents agreed with this vision as the best environmental option. There were two critical environmental areas near the corridor – and the Lake Hart basin was sacrificed in order to preserve the Econ Basin.

Innovation Way East - a HUGE parcel OUTSIDE Innovation Way Corridor & Outside the Urban Service Area Innovation Way policy states “development shall be within the corridor or substantially contiguous”. Staff has agreed that IWE has less than 25% contiguous to the corridor With only 380 acres inside the corridor, this is parcel also has the largest amount of land (over 4000 acres) outside of the corridor. Why develop East now? Roads in the corridor flow south and west?

Approved Housing Housing already approved for Starwood, Innov Place, and ICP is 17,940. Add in the Lake Hart PD and Moss Park DRI and there are over 25,700 already approved homes Campus DRI Research Park Do we NEED over 6000 more homes NOW? Over 170 homes in Avalon Park, Stoneybrook & Eastwood

Lake Mary Jane Alliance Assessment of Innovation Way East DRI Application for Approval Concern There does NOT appear to be any need to expand the Urban Service Area (USA) for a housing rich development. DCA agrees that previous approvals as well as the extremely depressed housing situation provide ample capacity for growth needs beyond the next decade. Approval of USA expansion at this time would provide inappropriate precedent for further unneeded expansion. Staff agrees there is no need.

Majority Land Holder ICP, IWE, Camino South and the entire 17,000 acres of the Osceola NE sector are all owned by Deseret / Mormans. Plus the other 250,000+ acres they own stretching all the way to the east coast. DCA has not approved the USA expansion

Florida Forever 2005 Rankings of lands needed for Preservation of Florida’s Wildlife Corridors Lands surrounding the Econ were ranked as highest priority “Critical Linkages” Policy Lands that should be protected include key wildlife corridors and key habitat which are defined as follows: Contiguous strands of natural plant communities which have the potential to support healthy and diverse populations of native plants and animals...

BLOCKS Wildlife Corridor Orange County Created the GreenPlace program to purchase critical environment land. The County invested MILLIONS of our tax dollars preserving this Wildlife Corridor. IWE lands connect the 9000 acres of Hal Scott Preserve to the 7000 acres of Moss Park IWE will severely impact this Wildlife Corridor – Violation of Policy protecting Wildlife Movement.

ECFRPC March 2010: Recommended higher densities west of Turkey Creek and no Development east of Turkey Creek would be preferred. Development over 1 mile from the corridor and separated by Turkey Creek is simply SPRAWL

The Alliance Board IWE needs the following changes: 1.All land east of Turkey Creek should be permanently preserved so there is no option for future sprawl. 2.Development in the southwest corner (near Camino) should either be clustered and moved farther north with preservation of the southwest corner, or executive housing should be located in this section of the property closest to the rural settlement. Executive homes could also be located in the northwest. 3.There must be a large wildlife crossing east of Turkey Creek to connect to the Hal Scott Preserve (similar to the cattle passage underneath 528 near the NW corner of Neighborhood B1.) Phase development – and do not close off existing crossing or develop the phase surrounding the existing culvert until a new wildlife crossing east of Turkey Creek is completed. 4.No access onto Lake Mary Jane Rd for construction or IW traffic of any kind. (We understand that the TM Ranch driveway needs to be used for cattle and citrus.)

This would conform IWE to the Innovation Way vision, reduce the area needed to be served by multimodal transportation, give access for a southern connector, reduce the cost to the County of expanding the Urban Service Area, provide for much needed executive housing, and permanently preserve this important wildlife corridor. More Acceptable...

Preserving Rural Florida Thank you for your time.