State Advisory Group Avoids Clash with Home Builders on Controversial School-Building Issue

The citizens group completed a week-long session in Orlando, suggesting cities, counties and school districts jointly determine when and where new schools are needed in startup subdivisions. In the past, builders have been blamed for erecting new schools in communities already served by existing schools and where infrastructure is lacking or incomplete.

The group recommends the school district be the arbiter on how much new classroom space is needed before a developer receives a county building permit.

"This definitely could handcuff future subdivision development if the school board, cities and counties come up with the wrong numbers," Arvida Realty Services Inc. senior broker Dean Fritchen tells GlobeSt.com. "On the other hand, developers could come out ahead if the three governmental groups accurately plan ahead and share their information with the development community."

Two local developers already are challenging a similar Orange County school-building decree in state court. Mel Martinez, the county's chairman before being named by President George W. Bush as Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, shut down all new residential projects and school construction last March in rural areas that lacked water, sewer, roads and other infrastructure.

The county's action was taken even as some builders were offering to erect schools at their own cost and sell the buildings back later to the school district. The county's overcrowded school conditions and the climbing cost of new school campuses is an ongoing issue in metro Orlando and throughout the state.

The growth management advisory group meets again in Tallahassee, FL on Feb. 12 before delivering its final report to the governor and the Legislature Feb. 15.