By Olivia Rommel
Herald Intern
The Oviedo City Hall Commission Committee last met in June. What was talked about in that meeting was changes to the development rules that govern Reformed Theological Seminary property in Kingsbridge. There also was a proposed city charter amendment that was voted 4-1 that would extend council's terms from 2 to 4 years, but ultimately ruled out letting voters decide. There was also concern shared from council about a property tax proposal and its impact on the city’s finances.
Towards the beginning of the recent meeting that took place on July 6, Mayor Otto informed council of adding Ordinance No.1774 to the agenda which he claims requires “four of the five members of city council to annex property that is currently behind the rural boundary or in the Seminole county rural area,” said Otto.
He goes on to add that the majority Charter Review Committee Members were in favor of it with eight in favor and three opposed. Otto commented that it deserves consideration, but one council member, Mayor Jeff Boddiford, questioned the urgency, saying “I don’t understand what the rush is. It's almost as if there's something going on that we don't know about.”
Earlier in the meeting, David Bear, President of Save Rural Seminole, urged council members to strengthen Seminole County’s rural boundary. He claims that his reform policy has protected Seminole County’s rural boundary for the past 25 years from development , but is concerned about some actions coming from Tallahassee that might undermine that and strongly advocates for the proposed charter amendment that requires 4 to 5 council votes to annex land outside of the rural boundary.
After adding Ordinance No. 1774 to the agenda, council moved on to public hearings, specifically proposed amendments to the city’s Comprehensive Plan.
It started with a presentation carried out by the Development Services Director Teresa Correa. She was telling the council about the projection for the population of Oviedo and mentioned some proposed amendments to update the city’s planned horizon from 2045 to 2050 along with and updating some policies such as transportation, housing, land use etc.
Once receiving an update about the city’s Comprehensive Plan, the Assistant Public Works Director and Assistant City Engineer of Oviedo, Paul Yeargain introduced a flood forecast that could warn people of a coming flood four days out. Yeargain goes on to say that the cost to create the model would be $216,000 along with an annual cost of $40,000 that would start in the year 2027. The council responded this by saying while they see the value in this model as of right now they are just not ready to invest in it, but they don’t want to shut it down. Council proposes partnering with the county and neighboring cities to get a county wide system that could effectively implement this plan. They left it on tabling the issue for the next meeting.
All of the council members thanked everyone for coming out and showed some gratitude for the firework show that took place at the Oviedo Mall, commenting on how great they were. They also wanted to remind people of the upcoming election that is taking place in August and urged people to attend. Their next meeting was on July 20 at 6:30 p.m. Then right at 9:09 p.m. the meeting adjourned.
