State questions Winter Park over grant

City claims events center and library are in compliance

The state Department of Environmental Protection is asking Winter Park officials to prove the city didn’t violate the terms of a state grant awarded 25 years ago with its plans for a voter-approved $30 million library and events center project.

The city received the $100,000 grant in the mid-1990s for Martin Luther King Jr. Park under the condition that it would permanently remain an outdoor recreational space. The city used the money to add outdoor playing fields, walking trails and to clean up the area.

The area is due for a transformation with plans for the massive campus — dubbed “Canopy” — that call for a 35,690-square-foot new library and a 13,456-square-foot events center, which are expected to open in fall 2020.

City officials contend that since the site of the project, the Rachel D. Murrah Civic Center near MLK Park, already existed before the grant was doled out, they believe they are in compliance.

“None of the state funds were spent in that quadrant where we’re looking to construct the Canopy project,” City Manager Randy Knight said.

City officials have tried twice in the last year to satisfy the state agency but Knight said they are still working on submitting more documentation, including maps and aerial photos showing the area both before and after renovations got underway.

“I think that will show them clearly that all the area around the civic center was there prior to the grant money and it’s still there afterwards,” Knight said. “It’s still going to be there when we build the new project.”

The state agency said in a letter last month that the grant issue was brought to their attention by a group of citizens, whom city officials have publicly accused of trying to derail the project since it was narrowly approved in a 2016 referendum.

Resident Michael Poole, who spearheaded an unsuccessful lawsuit to block construction of the project, said he and a few others contacted the state because of environmental concerns.

Trees were cut down last month to make way for the demolition of the civic center and dozens more are projected to go. The city has said about 125 trees will be planted to replace the “aging trees.”

“Our focus has been about preserving green space,” Poole said. “We knew, for ourselves, that this would not stop the project. That wasn’t our intention.”

Although one of the options to resolve the grant issue includes repaying the money to the state, Knight said he believes the city can “satisfy them with a dedication that restricts the appropriate property in their minds.”

At the request of the state agency, city staffers are also doing title searches on the other parks that received six-figure grants over the past four decades to ensure they are in compliance.

“I think we’re close to having it resolved,” Knight said. “I think, quite honestly, this is much ado about nothing.”