Unable to stop the the imminent sale of the historic Hungerford school property, the Eatonville Town Council hopes it can meet with the land’s planned buyer and influence the deal.
The council met Tuesday evening just hours after the Orange County School Board, which owns the 117-acre property, signaled its plans to sell the land to Dr. Phillips Charities.
The fate of the Hungerford property has long been controversial and the latest plans, which the school board is likely to approve next week, are as well.
The charity wants to develop the land with housing, retail businesses, including a grocery store, and a conference hotel center along with the educational facilities, medical facilities and parks. It also plans to donate some of the property back to the town.
But some town leaders, who pushed for the school board to donate the land directly to Eatonville, worry Dr. Phillips plans’ do not include enough projects that would build the town’s tax base.
The school site sits along Interstate 4 and serves as a gateway to the town. Eatonville, founded by freed slaves, bills itself as the oldest Black-run municipality in the nation. Town and school leaders have long hoped new development on the now-vacant property would boost Eatonville’s limited tax base and jump-start a revitalization of the town, which has has struggled economically.
School leaders, the charity and the town’s mayor think Dr. Phillips’ proposal would do that.
Not all town leaders agree, however, and Tuesday they asked the school board to delay its vote by 90 days so the town could possibly make its own bid for the property.
But school board members were not receptive to that idea and said they plan to vote on the Dr. Phillips deal on Jan. 13.
At the council’s meeting Tuesday night, some council members said they were frustrated and disappointed.
“We are the historic town of Eatonville, built on freedom and a freedom to choose. But when your freedom to choose is taken away from you that hurts,” LaDwyana Jordan said. “…So we’re not able to choose. We’ve been forced to do something and it just don’t feel good.”
Town Attorney Cliff Shepard advised council members to collaborate with Dr. Phillips Charities to see if they can influence the developments planned for the property.
“‘Okay, we are in a big hole. How do we get out of this hole?’ The first rule of getting out of a hole is stop digging,” Shepard said. “…I think that right away we need to sit with the folks at Dr. Phillips and actually talk them through their intentions.”
The council has a planned meeting with Dr. Phillips Charities on Jan. 20, a week after the school board’s planned vote.
The council did not agree Tuesday, however, on what changes it would like to see. Some suggested holding a special meeting on that topic on Jan. 14, but then two members, Wanda Randolph and Mayor Angie Gardner, said they may not be able to make at meeting then.
No alternative meeting date was set, though one could be later this week.
Council member Jordan criticized the indecisiveness.
“You need to get it together, people. Don’t go in front of these people doing the same thing the same way we’ve been doing it,” Jordan said. “That’s why we getting these results. Either you in or you not.”
The property was once home to the Robert F. Hungerford Normal and Industrial School, a private boarding school for Black students when segregation-era white school districts would not educate them. The school board purchased the Hungerford land more than seven decades ago — for under market value and under controversial circumstances, some Eatonville residents argue — and operated a public school there for years.
The school was closed in 2009, and the buildings were demolished in 2020. The school board, with the town’s approval, has tried to sell the property to private developers but those plans have fallen through.
The charity’s successful development of Orlando’s Packing District, an effort to rehabilitate the area west of College Park in partnership with the City of Orlando, made school leaders view it as an ideal partner for Eatonville. In the Packing District, the charity developed a public park and donated millions of dollars for a new YMCA. Today, the area is home to a food hall, retail stores and thousands of new residents.