Thanks to a recent vote, Osceola County will place a temporary moratorium on new development proposals, a moratorium that area business leaders say sends the wrong message.

  • County planning and design team says moratorium will allow for future planning
  • Builders say moratorium is anti-development, anti-economic growth
  • Mixed use projects exempt from ordinance

The county’s planning and design team said it spends 80 percent of its time dealing with incoming applications, and that a moratorium would help them plan for the future.

The ordinance passed 3 to 2 but most of the people who spoke during public comment were against the moratorium.

The president of the Greater Orlando Builders Association Bill Silliman said a moratorium sends a message of anti-development and anti-economic growth.

“So if they stop homes from being built, they won’t have new homes coming into the tax revenue,” Silliman said. “Citizens don’t realize this. This is important that the citizens understand that this could blow a hole in your own school system's budget. So we need to be careful here.”

Mixed-use projects are exempt under the ordinance, as are applications already in the Planning Commission's agenda.

Some commissioners believe the exemption for mixed-use projects in particular may help bring more affordable-housing to Osceola County.

“We are the affordable single family capital of Central Florida when it comes to single family homes,” commissioner Fred Hawkins said. “So I think it’s just a misnomer about how the different areas when you say 'affordable housing,' what definitions we’re going for. So we have to need to be clear moving forward.”

The moratorium is set to last 6 months until May 5, 2018.