What may be missing and lost from the Orange Avenue Overlay (re)process?
VISION.
“A vision is like a lighthouse, which illuminates rather than limits,
giving direction rather than destination.”
– James J. Mapes, Foresight First More than 11,000 Winter Park residents (over 1/3) participated in the 2015-2016 visioning exercise for what they wanted Winter Park to become. The City of Winter Park Visioning document was accepted on July 11, 2016, and put on a shelf. More than four years later, no implementation of that plan has taken place. It wasn’t for lack of a community trying. This visioning exercise built consensus. It had us looking toward the future with optimism and hope. It served to lay out what the community should look like in the future, over the next 20 years or more.
One of Winter Park’s Vision Themes that came out of this process was “to plan growth through a collaborative process that protects our city’s timeless scale and character.” We, the stakeholders of Orange Avenue, felt OAO 1.0 (the overlay that was approved and rescinded, and that now is being challenged) was a result of this collaborative process. In OAO 2.0, as the city now refers to it, the “collaborative process” has been lost. The writing is being done in commission work sessions where no public input is allowed. Only the city commissioners have a voice. Their focus is on restricting, not protecting.
The energy and life, the hope and possibility that the overlay once had, has been sucked out of the process. The new commission has created fatigue and exhaustion on what was meant to be an uplifting community effort to reenergize an entire district. The commission asks to meet with developers to gather information only. They then make promises to work together, then go about the business of no growth in the city, instead spend countless hours discussing backyard chickens. This commission remains against development.
What would you say if you were told that one property owner wanted to transform the gateway entrance into Winter Park from Orlando (at 17-92 and Orange Ave.) to a beautiful series of parks, as well as a mix of uses, and that this transformation would create great improvement and efficiency at a dangerous intersection?
That is part of the narrative that goes untold by the city commissioners. Not the story of transforming a tired corridor into a vibrant, thriving district just as beautiful as Park Ave., with its own unique sense of place and vibe. However, in order to give up this land for a series of parks, the landowners need a certain amount of density to make it affordable.
What if we told you this image below was envisioned for Orange Avenue? How would you feel about it then? Which entrance below to Winter Park do you prefer and feel is most welcoming? Please email mayorandcommissioners@cityofwinterpark.org.
The Winter Park Chamber of Commerce put together a summit addressing the above opportunity. Watch it here.
Look for emails from the Orange Avenue Overlay Stakeholders regarding our upcoming webinar series, The Making of an Overlay.
