The Greater Orlando Aviation Authority has jettisoned plans to build 34 jet hangers and five million-gallon fuel tanks on wetlands near NorthLake Park. GOAA general consultant Schenkel- Shultz Architecture is currently hatching a new plan for the 1,324-acre GeeBee property just north of NLP, determining how this land can best serve Orlando International Airport and its neighbors.
“Obviously we needed to change our approach. We are not going to go forward with the plan [the residents] have seen. Unfortunately the plan presented [to residents] was an old plan and may or may not reflect what we are doing,” said GOAA Executive Director Steve Gardner.
“We want a plan compatible with the growth next to the airport. We brought in consultants and we need to give them time to research a new plan. We are looking at the best use for that property.” Some NLP residents remain skeptical.
“The problem is that although everyone told us this is not what they want, there are no new plans put forth and GOAA is going forward with the permitting process,” said Deborah Moskowitz, local attorney and representative for concerned NLP homeowners.
“The fact that they have not withdrawn their plans concerns us. If they are not building, why go through the permitting process?” When details of GOAA’s original plan — commonly referred to as a fuel farm — first circulated NLP last summer, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was bogged down with hundreds of angry letters and e-mails.
Although that has calmed, people living in NLP and beyond are still concerned. They recently formed a task force, which meets monthly, to investigate GOAA’s plan. NLP resident Pam Maycumber sent a letter to Orlando commissioners and GOAApleading with them to adopt a less intense use on the property. “I hope the letter will make them retract their site plan.
If this property should ever be touched, even an inch of it given its environmental sensitivity, we need to be sure it is done in the right way,” she said. “I do not know if they will listen but I have to try. We love this community and wish to keep our home in the family for generations to come.”
Two weeks ago, during a well-attended southeast town hall meeting orchestrated by Dist. 1 City Commissioner Phil Diamond, Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer denounced the plan and said the city would not approve it. “I don’t support this map. It is not compatible with the land use or zoning,” Dyer said. “I promise you, whatever is developed on that property will be compatible with your neighborhood because you should be able to be proud of your neighborhood.”
According to GOAA, obtaining a permit for that property and having it amended under a development of regional impact (DRI) — any development that has a substantial impact on the health, safety or welfare of citizens of more than one county — are steps that are required no matter what plan is in place. Gardner said GOAA cannot rescind the current plan until they develop a new one. “We are following our normal process.
The DRI is a long process so what we have done in the past is get all of our environmental work done up front. Our due diligence is to get that property amended into the DRI so when the day comes when we do want to utilize it, we can,” Gardner said. “We acquire property to meet the needs of the airport that serves this community and will serve the community for a long time in the future. It is going to take some time.
We have got to exercise patience to do it properly.” Residents fear that the deeper GOAA gets into the process, the less control they will have over what becomes their neighbor. “We are not trying to be a thorn in anyone’s side. We just want this resolved to everyone’s satisfaction,” Moskowitz said. “We feel like stewards of that land and we do not want something there that would sour the entire medical city and everything else going on there.
We feel like it could be too late if we do not deal with this now.” Once the plan changes, Gardner said GOAA will hold neighborhood meetings to gather public input and answer questions. “I can understand why the residents are upset with the plan. When we met with them in the past we agreed to work with them on a plan that is acceptable to them.
As we go through the process, they will have plenty of opportunity for input.” Jeff Collins, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project manager, said they too intend to conduct community meetings as GOAA’s plans change. He speculated that GOAA might have pitched the current plan in order to obtain ultimate flexibility for the future.
“They can go through all of this as well as a development of regional impact study and still end up building something else,” Collins said. “From the development perspective they are taking the steps, but I think that is what they want — flexibility. I have been doing this a while and things change, the market changes, needs change. But when you show a worse-case plan, which they have done, it gets people riled up.”
