ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — The Orange County Planning and Zoning Commission on Thursday rejected a request to change zoning to develop more than 200 acres of land in the Shingle Creek basin area to build the Tuscana project, thousands of hotel rooms and multifamily living spaces.

What You Need To Know

  • The Orange County Planning and Zoning Commission on Thursday denied a request to change zoning to allow for the Tuscana project

  • Developers' plans called for building thousands of hotel rooms and multifamily units on more than 200 acres in the Shingle Creek basin area

  • The proposal was not recommended for approval by the commission staff or the Development Review Committee

  • Local conservationists and advocacy groups had called on Orange County leaders to reject the proposal out of fear that the development would ruin vital wetlands and disturb natural resources and wildlife

The community had fought the proposed development, and a petition circulated to protect the basin called on Orange County officials to reject the proposal.

The plans for Tuscana also were not recommended for approval by commission staff or by the Development Review Committee, despite changes made to the plans to build up instead of out.

Commission members cited the findings by both staff and the DRC that the project did not fall in line with previous moves to protect wetlands in the area and concerns that the project could increase flooding in the area.

Project applicants now will have to decide if they’d like to bring the proposal before the Board of County Commissioners or go back to the drawing board to address specific concerns.

Before Thursday's meeting, Orange County District 5 Commissioner Kelly Martinez Semrad said she shares the same concerns raised by many conservation advocacy groups when the project was first proposed. 

“Mother Nature's stormwater management system, which is our wetlands, are free, and developing manmade stormwater management systems comes at a cost,” Semrad said. “Right now, what we need to be looking at is preserving the systems that Mother Nature gave us to help mitigate and prevent a continued increase in flooding.”

Following Hurricane Ian, flooding in Central Florida has remained a major concern for countless counties. Semrad said that while she believes development speaks to the opportunities for economic growth, it shouldn’t come at the cost of potentially damaging the natural resources that the community depends on, or that tourists travel to see.

“Economic opportunity and economic developments are what make the wheels of our local economy turn, but our local economy is tourism-dependent, and if we are underwater and if we are flooding and we are having more intense aftermath from storms, we have reduced tours that are coming to our area,” she said.