In their zeal to defend Split Oak Forest, conservation advocates have not surrendered hope they may somehow find a path to stop the Central Florida Expressway Authority from building a toll road through the forest about 25 miles southeast of downtown Orlando.
But Orange County Administrator Byron W. Brooks, in a memo to county commissioners, is urging his board to consider a different course: Accept that the toll road may be inevitable, and pursue the “limited but important opportunities for county engagement and negotiation” as CFX aims to seize even more publicly-owned property for its highway.
“Early, strategic negotiation provides the only opportunity to pursue alternatives beyond cash compensation,” Brooks said in a pre-Christmas missive to the board. “For example, the county could consider seeking other lands CFX owns or controls that have significant environmental value that greatly exceeds in acreage the 24.3 acres of environmentally sensitive lands involved in this taking.”
The looming decision to bargain or brawl is the latest twist in Central Florida’s bitterest environmental battle in recent years, over a plan to pave a highway across a corner of Split Oak Forest, 1,700 acres stretching across Orange and Osceola Counties that was thought to have been preserved forever from development. But in 2024, a state commission backed the road, with the assent of Osceola and over the objections of Orange and many members of the local environmental community.
Now, CFX has started the process to take an additional 46.7 Orange county-owned acres, more than half labeled as “environmentally sensitive,” for the project— including a piece of Eagles Roost Park.
The road authority has not made a formal offer for the properties, a prerequisite to suing to take the land. Once CFX makes an offer, the county has 30 days to counter.
About 800 people, many who identify as Split Oak defenders, tuned into a virtual town hall Thursday to discuss the cost of urban sprawl which, they insisted, will result from the proposed Osceola County Parkway extension through the forest, a highway also known as State Road 534.
Advocates also intend to rally Tuesday before Orange County commission’s first meeting of 2026, during which the board is scheduled to discuss Split Oak and CFX’s need for more county land — a topic raised by west Orange Commissioner Nicole Wilson.
They’ve called on supporters to turn out and appeal to commissioners to keep fighting.
“Are there still avenues to be pursued? I think there are,” Wilson said in a phone interview when asked if the county might yet prevail upon CFX to “go around” rather than through the forest. “I think at the end of the day, there’s probably going to be a toll road (built) somewhere in the area, although I’m certainly going to put up a fight to make sure that they’re not taking conservation land on top of conservation land.”
In addition to CFX, the toll road’s backers include Osceola County government; Tavistock Development Co., the maker of Medical City and Orlando’s Lake Nona community; and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, whose real estate holdings in Central Florida include 300,000 undeveloped acres east and south of Orlando’s airport that are held through a subsidiary, Deseret Ranches.
The 232-acre Eagles Roost Park was acquired for conservation by Orange County in 2006 with $8 million in taxpayer funds.
Last August, Orange County’s representatives on CFX’s governing panel, Mayor Jerry Demings and county commissioner Christine Moore, cast no votes on a measure declaring a small piece of the park as “necessary” for the SR 534 toll road extension. They were joined in opposition by Brevard County Commissioner Katie Delaney, but the CFX’s board’s majority vote nonetheless cleared the way for the Expressway Authority’s lawyers to advance their preferred route through eminent domain or negotiation.
In his memo, Brooks said county staff had identified environmentally sensitive lands nearby as well as in other areas that CFX owns or controls “that might be of significant interest to the county and we are prepared to pursue with CFX” if commissioners approve. The idea would be to gain those lands in exchange for surrendering the piece of Eagle’s Roost and the other county acreage.
The memo did not identify the CFX properties.
A CFX spokesperson did not respond to an email seeking comment.
Karbel Media/Special to the Orlando Sentinel
Lee Perry, a Split Oak advocate who organized Thursday’s town hall, noted an appeals court in November reaffirmed a lower court ruling that turned away Osceola County’s effort to invalidate an Orange County charter amendment adding protections to the forest. She said those court decisions keep the door open to reroute the toll road.
But Chuck O’Neal, who sued as founder of environmental group Speak Up Wekiva to protect the perpetual conservation easements in Split Oak Forest from breach, said he believes the toll road extension will likely be under construction as early as next January.
He said eminent domain authority is the ace in CFX’s hand, then offered an argument for negotiating with CFX.
“It’s not what anybody wants to hear,” O’Neal said. “But sometimes the best thing you can do is to make it the least worst option.”
shudak@orlandosentinel.com