{"id":371054,"date":"2026-08-14T05:02:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T05:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/371054\/"},"modified":"2026-08-14T05:02:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T05:02:08","slug":"orange-county-to-review-first-agricultural-enclave-request","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/371054\/","title":{"rendered":"Orange County to review first agricultural enclave request"},"content":{"rendered":"

ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 A new law in Florida is paving the path for developers to build new neighborhoods in areas where they may not have been able to before. Senate Bill 686<\/a> allows a new type of zoning called an agricultural enclave, which allows developers to build a neighborhood in rural areas if the proposal meets the law\u2019s rules.<\/p>\n

The first agricultural enclave being proposed in Orange County is on a large tract of land next to Lake Pickett Road near the Seminole County line.<\/p>\n

Tom Narut has lived a quiet lifestyle along North Pickett Road for 17 years and says he does not want to see new homes built near the two-lane road which carries lots of traffic toward State Road 50 and into Orlando. That is why he opposes the proposed Lake Pickett North Sustanee project for more than 1,500 houses.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can four-lane this, but that doesn\u2019t even come close to compensating for the density that you\u2019re putting here,\u201d Narut said.<\/p>\n

The law states that in order to create an agricultural enclave in a rural area, at least 75% of the land\u2019s perimeter must be bordered by industrial, commercial or residential development.<\/p>\n

Developer Yog Melwani with Align Commercial Real Estate explains why lawmakers passed it.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne reason is because of housing shortage, whether it be affordable, workforce or market rate. So, the law is there as a shot in the arm to streamline the process for rezoning and future land use changes,\u201d Melwani said.<\/p>\n

Orange County Commissioner Kelly Semrad represents District 5, including east Orange County. She says Columnar Investments\u2019 request to convert 1,250 acres into an agricultural enclave is the first one to go before the county under the new law. Semrad says many of her constituents have made it clear they do not want urban sprawl in their rural area.<\/p>\n

Semrad believes Senate Bill 686 bypasses Orange County\u2019s zoning rules and efforts to protect the county\u2019s rural boundary.<\/p>\n

\u201cSenate Bill 686 is the facilitator and the machine for endless, reckless, irresponsible, urban sprawl-style growth across the entire state of Florida,\u201d she said<\/p>\n

Columnar Investments\u2019 request will go before Orange County Commissioners at their Aug. 25 meeting. Opponents hope that they will reject it.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur hopeful request is a flat-out no because something doesn\u2019t qualify,\u201d Narut said.<\/p>\n

Because Senate Bill 686 is a state law, the commissioners\u2019 role at the Aug. 25 hearing will be to check if the application for an agricultural enclave meets the law\u2019s clear criteria.<\/p>\n

Spectrum News 13 reached out Thursday to Columnar Investments and to several Florida lawmakers who voted to pass Senate Bill 686 to get their comments. We have not heard back from any of them as of Thursday evening.<\/p>\n

The Senate Bill 686 law is scheduled to sunset in 2028.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 A new law in Florida is paving the path for developers to build new neighborhoods…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":371055,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[4318,3140,558,2156,1337,2287,115,1335,139,141,140,99,835],"class_list":["post-371054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-app-latest-local-state-politics-stories","tag-app-local-state-politics","tag-business","tag-growth","tag-keith-landry","tag-local-politics","tag-news","tag-orange-county","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-politics","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371054","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=371054"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371054\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/371055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=371054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=371054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}