competing to make the site a park<\/a>, with two different visions for its future.<\/p>\nWhat You Need To Know<\/p>\n
Orange County Public Schools owns the site of Fort Gatlin, Orlando’s first settlement
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An anonymous buyer has an offer on the table to purchase the property
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\nResidents and elected officials say they plan to meet with possible buyer’s attorney on Dec. 1<\/p>\n
Residents, elected officials and the attorney for the potential anonymous buyer plan to meet soon to see if they can create a shared vision for the historic site\u2019s future. Area residents say they will also speak Tuesday afternoon at the Orange County School Board meeting to make sure their views are known.<\/p>\n
Ryan Smith lives near the site of Fort Gatlin, which was established by the United States Army as a military outpost in 1838. Today, a large abandoned building sits on the property.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnybody who lives near here, drives by this every day and wants better for the community, would prefer green space and a park,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n
Residents established the Fort Gatlin Historical Group a year ago to convince Orange County Public Schools to sell the site to Orange County government and run it as a public park. They\u2019ve been putting up signs and campaigning online to raise public awareness.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a great opportunity to come together as neighbors and a community to seek something better,” Smith said.<\/p>\n
An anonymous potential buyer has an offer on the table right now to purchase the site with the goal of operating a nonprofit on the property to establish a private park, which would be open to the public. It\u2019s a concept some residents say they do not trust.<\/p>\n
Orange County Commissioner Mayra Uribe is working with the School Board and county leaders to push for public access. She says residents and elected officials plan to meet with the private buyer\u2019s attorney on Dec. 1.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to make sure that we\u2019re all in one room,” Uribe said. “We\u2019re discussing the details and that we all feel good of moving this forward, and that there will be assurances that the park will \u2014 this will become a park.\u201d<\/p>\n
Orange County School Board Member Alicia Farrant says the U.S. Department of Education has removed any restrictions on how the property can be used in the future. She said the Dec. 1 meeting is essential.<\/p>\n
\u201c(We are) just meeting to make sure that we have those assurances … public access to a private park,” Farrant said.<\/p>\n
Randy Smith said that some of his neighbors are cautiously optimistic.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are concerns that I think need to be addressed,” he said. “And I think the meeting on Dec. 1,\u00a0or around thereabouts, should hopefully resolve those concerns.\u201d<\/p>\n
Attorney James Willard, who represents the potential buyer, said he is arranging the meeting with residents and elected officials to share the extensive due diligence they\u2019ve compiled about the site, and to reassure them about his client\u2019s interest to convert the site into a privately owned community park.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014\u00a0There are new developments regarding the future of Orlando\u2019s first settlement, the site of Fort Gatlin.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42190,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[767,274,28,1337,115,772,1335,139,141,140,278,835],"class_list":{"0":"post-42189","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando","8":"tag-app-community","9":"tag-app-top-stories","10":"tag-florida","11":"tag-keith-landry","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-on-air-ticker-article","14":"tag-orange-county","15":"tag-orlando","16":"tag-orlando-headlines","17":"tag-orlando-news","18":"tag-top-stories","19":"tag-vod"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42189","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=42189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42189\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}