I’m glad Apopka went all out for its statues.

Next year Apopka will unveil two bronze statues of the late longtime Mayor John Land.

Some have suggested the tributes — at a cost of $107,000 and nearly all of it footed by taxpayers — are excessive.

Even Commissioner Bill Arrowsmith, one of Land’s closest allies, questioned the price and suggested one statue would have been enough. Hard to argue with that. For Apopka’s sake, though, I’m glad the city went all out.

A little overindulgence in the way of honoring the man who led Apopka for more than six decades may not be such a bad thing.

I’d go so far as to say it’s a good thing if the statues serve as bookends to a period in Apopka’s past.

Maybe this grand gesture of deference is what Apopka needs to move on. It’s time. No doubt, John Land accomplished a lot during his extensive tenure.

He kept taxes low and believed in a personal connection between City Hall and the people.

There isn’t a single person more synonymous with a Central Florida town than Land.

But the Indoor Foliage Capital of the World lost its mojo long ago. Like that slogan, for starters. Sanford stopped calling itself the “The Celery City” back in the 1970s when agriculture’s dominance started to wane.

But Apopka never bothered to stop and reconsider its slogan.

Or anything else for that matter.

The second-largest city in Orange County hasn’t revised its codes that spell out what kind of development is allowed and where since 1992.

The rules are antiquated and directly responsible for why many people would likely consider modern Apopka to be the dollar-store capital of Central Florida.

There are nine dollar stores within Apopka’s 33 square miles.

That’s enough $1 rolls of wrapping paper to pave the Wekiva Parkway.

The good news is that Apopka can do better.

Mayor Joe Kilsheimer, who has been in office about 18 months, urged the City Commission to set aside some money to update the city’s development codes.

“The thing I kind of campaigned on is that nothing happens unless you start with intention,” he said. “You have to intend to do things in a different way if you’re going to get a different result.”

That also seems to be the philosophy behind an exercise that allowed residents to weigh in on what they like and don’t like and want to see happen in their city.

“We have more dollar stores and Taco Bells than you can shake a stick at,” commented one resident during a recent city survey.

Dollar stores and fast food

joints were a common thread of dread through comments left by many residents.

Yet, it was only about six months ago that the City Commission voted down a proposed moratorium on new fast food drive-through restaurants.

Too many on the commission were all too willing to lean on Apopka’s old development philosophy, which was, in no uncertain terms, “anything goes.”

And we can see where that got us.

Apopka needs higher standards.

And, while utterly bureaucratic and unglamorous, better development codes can go a long way toward that end.

That effort will hopefully go hand-in-hand with a plan to modernize the city’s brand, including a logo that conjures this century and not the last. It won’t happen overnight. But Apopka can’t keep ignoring the reality that it has become a suburban bedroom community, not a farming town.

A new slogan isn’t going to usher in the new downtown city leaders are talking about any more quickly.

Setting the right tone, though, is a good start.

That sentiment isn’t about stepping on Land’s legacy. Quite the opposite. Maybe the John Land statues can begin to serve as Apopka’s permanent and tangible link to its past.

And the city can begin to modernize relics like development rules that are holding it back rather than moving it forward.