{"id":319878,"date":"2026-06-25T21:02:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T21:02:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/319878\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T21:02:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T21:02:12","slug":"orlando-historic-review-on-hold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/319878\/","title":{"rendered":"Orlando Historic Review on Hold"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Orlando City Council voted for a three-year suspension of the current review process<\/a> for considering new development projects in the city\u2019s Downtown Historic District<\/a>. The suspension was passed on a four-to-two vote.<\/p>\n

The district encompasses an eight block swath of downtown along Orange Avenue and includes about 60 examples of notable architecture including the one-hundred-and-twenty-one year old Elijah Hand Building<\/a> and the Old Orlando Railroad Depot<\/a> \u2013 now called Church Street Station \u2013 which dates back to the late 1800\u2019s.<\/p>\n

The district received its designation in 1980 from the City of Orlando \u2013 it\u2019s listed with five other historic preservation districts in the city. Orlando requires all development proposals involving alterations to the exterior of buildings \u2013 referred to as the fa\u00e7ade – within these districts to be put before a review board with the goal of preserving the architecture that contribute to the city\u2019s heritage and identity.<\/p>\n

Supporters of the suspension say it is an effort to stimulate new business development in an downtown corridor that has seen a proliferation of vacant spaces \u2013 a business district that has struggled to recover from the economic impacts of the COVID pandemic. They argue that suspending the mandatory review by the Historic Preservation Board<\/a> and moving the review to the city\u2019s Appearance Review Board<\/a>, which considers ALL downtown development projects, will streamline a process criticized as being an obstacle to rejuvenating the district.<\/p>\n

The state has weighed in from Tallahassee \u2013 in an email sent on the Saturday before Monday\u2019s vote, the Florida Division of Historic Resources threatened to revoke<\/a> a certification from Orlando that allows the city to access state grant funding for historic preservation if the council had voted for the suspension.<\/p>\n

Commissioner Shan Rose represents Orlando\u2019s District 5<\/a>, which includes the Downtown Historic District \u2013 she was one of the four commissioners who voted for the suspension. Rose joined Engage yesterday to talk about her vote.<\/p>\n

Orlando contractor Scott Sidler<\/a> was critical of the moratorium during a public hearing, accusing the city council of \u201cremoving protections from some of your most treasured pieces of history to study what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

Patty Shehan is the District 4 Commissioner<\/a> on the Orlando City Council \u2013 and a fierce defender of historic preservation. Sheehan also spoke with Engage yesterday \u2013 and explained why she voted against suspending the historic review process.<\/p>\n

Orlando\u2019s Community Redevelopment Agency<\/a> advisory board will meet next month to discuss potential tax incentives for developers and property owners to preserve the exteriors of the district\u2019s historic buildings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Orlando City Council voted for a three-year suspension of the current review process for considering new development…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":319879,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[139,141,140],"class_list":["post-319878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=319878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319878\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/319879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}