3 Orlando incumbents sworn in to new terms
Three Orlando city commissioners were sworn in Monday to new four-year terms.
Jim Gray, Robert Stuart and Regina Hill all were reelected last year, representing crucial pockets of the city from downtown Orlando and neighborhoods west and north, to the fast-growing Lake Nona planned developments and established neighborhoods on the east side.
For Hill and Gray, it marked the beginning of their third full terms on the commission, while Stuart was ushered into a fifth term. They’ll continue to cast critical votes on policies ranging from policing and affordable housing to homelessness, development and other issues.
Gray, who represents southeast Orlando and Lake Nona, ticked off a list of companies who operate out of the planned development from KPMG to Lillium and soon, the Walt Disney Company.
“These companies have options, they have choices and there’s a reason they’re picking Orlando,” he said. “We’re not perfect but we’re better than most.”
Stuart, who won the closest of the three races in November, said the next four years are crucial for his district, particularly with critical road projects along Edgewater and Virginia Drives and developments like the Packing District expected to be completed.
“We have two major projects that are going to be transformational, these are projects that really come across once in a generation: That is the work on Edgewater Drive and on Corrine and Virginia,” he said. “Those two projects that move forward will change our dynamic really over the course of the next generation.”
Hill said the city has made progress in areas like affordable housing — though it still faces a severe shortage — as well as in job training programs and infrastructure, but said she plans to “go harder” at those areas in the coming years.
“We are thriving, but we still have work to do,” she said.
“We have two major projects that are going to be transformational, these are projects that really come across once in a generation: That is the work on Edgewater Drive and on Corrine and Virginia.”
— Robert Stuart, Orlando city commissioner