ORLANDO, Fla. — Orlando commissioners voted Monday to annex the first 6,000 acres of the so-called “Sunbridge” property that’s expected to become a development similar to Lake Nona.
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Tavistock, the developer of Lake Nona, had asked the city to take them in, though the company said it plans to follow the guidelines previously made by Orange County.
The first phase of the annexation is part of the wider, 11,000-acre plan that will see thousands of homes, shops, offices and industrial spaces constructed over the next half decade.
The annexation plan came as a surprise to Orange County leaders, who sent an attorney to ask the city to hit the brakes Monday.
“We are surprised and concerned about this annexation,” Andrew Mai told commissioners.
Orange County is concerned about getting boxed out of its own southeastern corner, especially because Orlando is known to have more lenient environmental regulations and enforcement.
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County leaders are concerned the city – working with developers – will one day go after the adjacent Deseret Ranch owned by the Mormon Church, which consists of thousands of acres bordering sensitive wetlands.
The county is also concerned that the area lacks the appropriate infrastructure, even though Sunrail’s Sunshine Corridor proposal includes a stop in Sunbridge.
The city pointed to the success of Lake Nona to dismiss most of the concerns, but leaders did not rule out future expansions eastward.
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“They’d rather do business with us than Orange County,” Tony Ortiz noted, of the developer.
The county plans to finalize the annexation of Sunbridge Phase 1 by the first of April and complete the second phase by mid-May.
It’s not clear what the county’s next move is, if anything. A county spokeswoman declined to comment after the city’s vote.
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