Orange voters quite clear on environment
While most of the world was busy screaming about Donald Trump and Joe Biden this week, voters in Orange County knew there were other important matters on their ballot.
Not at the top, where the presidential candidates’ names were listed.
Not even on the first, second or even third pages of their ballots.
But way back on the fourth and final ballot page. That’s where Orange County residents sent a clear message:
We care about the environment. We want you to protect it.
And if you break a promise to do so, we will come after you.
Voters overwhelmingly passed two amendments to the county’s charter meant to protect this region’s natural resources — one an effort to protect clean water and another to protect the fragile Split Oak Forest preserve.
When I say “overwhelmingly,” I mean unofficial results show those two amendments won with 86% and 89% of the vote — the kind of support usually reserved for puppies and pie.
The votes mark a major milestone in Central Florida environmentalism. Citizens have essentially seized power from the politicians, deciding to protect our natural resources whether the politicians liked it or not.
Maybe in recent weeks you saw the Split Oak yard signs around the county and didn’t give them much thought. But think about it now: When was the last time you saw so many people show mass support for trees?
And gopher tortoises.
And white-tailed deer and red-headed woodpeckers.
All those critters found haven and home in the southern
Orange County preserve that was created as part of a trade-off with developers during the 90s. Those were boom times, and developers wanted to raze every piece of profitable land they could find. So they worked out a deal with local leaders: The developers could spoil and foul land elsewhere in exchange for buying land that would be supposedly protected forever … in Split Oak Forest.
Except “forever,” as it turned out, meant only about 25 years.
That’s when the next generation of developers started knocking at the doors of Orange and Osceola county commissioners, begging for the right to pour more concrete and build more houses.
Local officials acquiesced, agreeing to build a toll road through the bottom portion of the preserve. … seemingly indifferent to what the word “preserve” actually means.
The politicians and development interests knew this all looked pretty bad. So they came up with yet another crafty deal. They said the toll road would just shave off a small portion of the preserve — and, in exchange, they would buy even more land to save and protect. And this time, they really, really meant it.
Are you starting to see the long con yet? It was a neverending game where a promise was never really a promise.
If you let us pave here, we’ll protect land over there … well, until we want to pave there, too, anyway.
Finally, environmental activ
ists said: Enough.
They crafted an amendment to the county charter that said no more deals; that the county’s promise to protect Split Oak must be honored, no matter what.
And voters overwhelmingly supported that deal Tuesday.
So now the howling will probably begin.
Backers of the toll-road will probably claim their road is still a go because it was approved before this week’s votes.
And if that doesn’t work, they’ll start whining that they have to find a new route or that — horror of horrors — they may have to scrap plans for the toll road altogether.
I’m not sure who they expect to shed tears over that last prospect. Central Florida is already one of the most-tolled regions in the most-tolled state in America. Residents aren’t going to mourn the loss of yet another costly swath of pavement.
Regardless, protectors of Split Oak always argued that the region’s toll-planning problems weren’t their concern.
The only thing they were focused on was making sure Orange County kept its promise to protect its natural resources.
See, the politicians we elected Tuesday will come and go; most quickly forgotten. But the natural resources we have are meant to sustain us for generations.
And that was what half a million Orange County citizens rose up to protect this week — even if they had to go to the fourth page of a long ballot to do so.