ORLANDO, Fla. — Orange County commissioners voted 4-3 in favor of challenging the Central Florida Expressway about eminent domain, using the land for public use, of Split Oak Forest on Tuesday morning.

What You Need To Know

Orange County Commissioners voted 4-3 in challenging Central Florida Expressway on their proposed public use of Split Oak Forest

CFX has been planning a 14-mile toll road connecting Orange and Osceola counties since 2019

Environmental advocates and community members spoke out at Tuesday’s Orange County Commission meeting, saying they want the proposal revoked altogether

CFX has been planning a 14-mile toll road connecting Orange and Osceola counties since 2019, which would run through Split Oak Forest, as a means of dealing with traffic congestion and population growth.

Many who’ve been advocating to protect the forest say they want other solutions for the congestion, just like environmental group Save Split Oak campaign leader Lee Perry.

“Hundreds of millions of dollars going into toll roads that will always be charging people a tax just to commute to work is not the answer. We want to see multimodal transit in places where we already have infrastructure,” Perry said.

Perry is one of many Split Oak supporters who want the 2019 proposal to be revoked altogether, and she wants the 2020 Orange County voter-approved charter amendment to be upheld.

“I think now Commissioner Wilson is calling into question, ‘What about our green Place properties?’ Outside of Split Oak Forest, now we have Eagles Roost, now we have other conservation easements, now we have other mitigation land from other developments 30 years ago. When does it stop?” Perry said.

Marcel Spitz, a supporter of Split Oak Forest, agrees.

“The Orange County population has voted like 85% has said we do not want Split Oak to be touched, and there are alternatives. So, we want them to listen to the people, and the county commissioners, both in Orange and Osceola, need to work together,” Spitz said.

Orange County Commissioner Nicole Wilson brought this discussion to the table during Tuesday’s commission meeting ahead of the vote, addressing the complexity of eminent domain and what CFX can and cannot do in regard to the land.  

The county attorney’s office says they will be reviewing questions brought up in the meeting to develop next steps.

“The state has great eminent domain laws, so we want to see Orange County combat this eminent domain that Central Florida Expressway is trying to implement here and say, ‘Hey, these are critically sensitive lands,’” Perry said.

In late 2025, the Sixth District Appeals Court ruled in favor of the charter amendment that Orange County residents voted for in 2020 in an ongoing legal battle between Orange and Osceola County over the amendment. Since that ruling, Osceola County has attempted to repeal and get certification of this case to the Florida Supreme Court.