The Split Oak travesty pounds home a very valuable lesson: in Florida no land is safe from developers, no matter what protections it is supposed to have.
Read the original article here in the Orlando Sentinel.
Comments by OSFR historian Jim Tatum.
jim.tatum@oursantaferiver.org
– A river is like a life: once taken,
it cannot be brought back © Jim Tatum
The toll road through Split Oak Forest appears to be a done deal
A new Orange County commissioner and longtime opponent of the road has been rebuffed in her efforts to reopen discussion of the controversial decision
By Stephen Hudak | shudak@orlandosentinel.com | Orlando Sentinel
PUBLISHED: April 21, 2025 at 6:00 AM EDT
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Despite the hopes and efforts of Split Oak Forest’s most zealous defenders, the Central Florida Expressway Authority’s contentious plan to build a stretch of toll road through the prized preserve is speeding ahead.
“It’s very frustrating to all of us,” said Orange County commissioner Kelly Martinez Semrad, an outspoken advocate for the forest and staunch foe of the road-building agency’s preferred route for its Osceola Parkway extension.
Semrad, elected in November to represent east Orange, sent colleagues and county administrators a memo last month appealing for clarification on the toll road’s status. It was sparked by constituents who discovered CFX had planted ground stakes marking the highway’s path in Split Oak, which straddles Orange and Osceola Counties. Like Semrad, the forest preserve’s defenders believed there were still fights to be fought.
“Here I am thinking there’s still a chance” to block it, the commissioner said….
Instead, Semrad and fellow commissioners received a six-page reply this month from the Orange County Environmental Protection Division with 80 pages of attached documents, outlining settled decisions in the toll road debate.
The memo essentially answered “no” to the question: “Is there any further action Orange County could take to alter the path of the road?”
It pointed out Osceola County had reached an agreement with CFX that didn’t include Orange County. The 1.3-mile segment of road is entirely within the Osceola County portion of the preserve, where Orange County has no regulatory or permitting authority, it said.
“The project is moving forward, with substantial financial commitments made by CFX,” the memo noted.
Those commitments included CFX donating 1,550 acres of land adjacent to Split Oak to the state — 968 acres in Orange County, 582 acres in Osceola County — and $23.9 million to pay for habitat restoration and wildlife protection on the land.
CFX also pledged another $18 million for the purchase of more environmentally sensitive lands.
Valerie Anderson, founder of Friends of Split Oak, questioned whether the new agreement which cut Orange County out of the loop can stand up to legal scrutiny since the original acquisition of the forest in 1991 was publicly funded and included both counties as partners. She said her group may explore legal options to intervene.
But a challenge would be “kind of complicated,” Anderson said.
The road through a southern wedge of Split Oak is favored by Tavistock Development Co., builder of Orlando’s Lake Nona community, and Suburban Land Reserve, part of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints corporate family, Florida’s biggest private landowner, with holdings that include Deseret Ranches in Central Florida.
It’s also backed by Osceola County.
Orange County does a U-turn on toll road through Split Oak
CFX is proceeding as if all obstacles have been cleared.
Asked if anything could derail the project now, spokesperson Brian Hutchings said no.
“All signs point to go,” he said.
shudak@orlandosentinel.com
