ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings is recommending tourist development tax funding for 13 projects across the county, adding the UCF Soccer Stadium and Track Facility to a list previously recommended by a citizen task force.<\/p>\n
Tourists staying in Central Florida hotels pay a bed tax that generates hundreds of millions of dollars in tourist development tax, or TDT, funding each year. The money is reinvested into tourism-related projects in the community.<\/p>\n
In an Oct. 8 memo to county commissioners, Demings said some applicants showed flexibility in their funding requests after county staff evaluated different scenarios. He said that flexibility would allow the available TDT dollars to stretch further and support 13 projects.<\/p>\n
The UCF Soccer Stadium and Track Facility was not among the 12 projects recommended by the TDT Citizen Advisory Task Force on Aug. 25. The memo says UCF would receive $46 million, down from its initial $119 million request.<\/p>\n
Michael Poole, one of the 34 members of the task force, said the UCF project did not receive support from most members.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnly one person out of the 30-plus wanted it, and nobody else \u2014 it couldn\u2019t even get a second motion to it,\u201d Poole said. \u201cSo, most of the committee thought it wasn\u2019t worthwhile. And two, when they look at college sports, college sports are typically funded by the community donors and not by tourist tax dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n
Orange County District 3 Commissioner Mayra Uribe said she supports the addition.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s great. University of Central Florida. This is our home college, and I\u2019m excited to hopefully get that through to the end,\u201d Uribe said.<\/p>\n
The largest proposed investment in the memo is $400 million for the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts master plan, reduced from its original $750 million request.<\/p>\n
Other projects on the list include a children\u2019s museum in Winter Garden, a natural history museum in Apopka, and a golf and conference campus in Ocoee.<\/p>\n
The full list of projects outlined in the memo included:<\/p>\n
Orange County Application Review Committee Grant program: $75 million between 2029 and 2033
\nOrange County Natural Resource Tourism Infrastructure Grant Program: $50 million over 10 years starting in 2028.
\nOrange County Eco-tourism Grant Program: $50 million over 10 years starting in 2028
\nOrange County Arts and Cultural Affairs: increasing from 5% of the first four cents to 6% starting in 2027, or an increase of about $3 million annually
\nDr. Phillips Charities Eatonville Museum of Culture and History: $60 million beginning in 2027
\nCreative City Project\u2019s Immerse Festival: $12.5 million total, with $4.75 million coming from its existing Blockbuster Grant and $7.75 million from future TDT revenue
\n8 Waves I am Children\u2019s Museum: $25 million beginning in 2027
\nOrange Audubon Natural History Museum at Apopka Birding Park: $12 million beginning in 2027
\nFlorida Citrus Sports Parking Structure: $52.5 million beginning in 2028
\nCity of Ocoee Forest Lake Golf Club and Conference Campus: $30 million beginning in 2028
\nTown of Eatonville CRA, Eatonville Heritage Tourism District: $20 million beginning in 2028
\nUCF Soccer Stadium and Track Facility: $46 million beginning in 2029
\nDr. Phillips Center For the Performing Arts Master Plan: $400 million bonded by the City of Orlando<\/p>\n
Uribe said the recommendations would spread funding beyond the areas that typically receive TDT dollars.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s fantastic. I think that there\u2019s a lot of great projects that have applied,\u201d Uribe said. \u201cI think one thing very important is that there\u2019s an opportunity for a lot of the cities \u2014 the city of Apopka, the city of Winter Garden, the city of Ocoee \u2014 to actually get some of this funding, which is not normal. Traditionally, it\u2019s the city of Orlando and Orange County where that funding goes.\u201d<\/p>\n
The task force reviewed presentations from 20 applicants before making its recommendations. Poole said the process included five meetings and additional study time outside of those meetings.<\/p>\n
\u201cI enjoyed it. It was nice to see, of all the different projects that were going on, all the different thought processes of how to spend the money and all the good ideas that would bring more tourists to the community,\u201d Poole said.<\/p>\n
Poole said he would have liked to see more money set aside for transportation needs.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is really critical for the community,\u201d Poole said. \u201cAnd the idea that we\u2019re not spending any money on tourist transportation doesn\u2019t make any sense to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the memo, Demings said the recommended projects and programs would\u201cincrease tourism opportunities, generate economic benefits, support jobs and small businesses, distribute TDT investment throughout Orange County, and enhance the quality of life for our residents.\u201d<\/p>\n
County commissioners are expected to discuss the funding at a work session scheduled for Monday, Oct. 19, at 12:30 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings is recommending tourist development tax funding for 13 projects…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":427690,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[3140,766,115,1335,139,141,140,99,835],"class_list":["post-427689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-app-local-state-politics","tag-massiel-leyva","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\/427689","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=427689"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427689\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/427690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=427689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=427689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=427689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}