The state wants to build a toll road through their property. The owners, however, want to develop a mix of 523 townhomes and single-family residences on the developable 200-acre portion of their land in a subdivision to be called Neighborhood Lakes in northeast Lake County, about 35 miles northwest of Downtown Orlando.
The suit, filed in Lake County Circuit Court, seeks to reverse the commissioners' 5-to-0 vote in February on the rezoning request. The suit, filed by local land-use lawyer Cecelia Bonifay, alleges the developers' legal rights were violated because their request for a continuance was also denied.
The suit also charges the commissioners breached their own county administrative regulations by commenting on the issue to the local media before the zoning request was even heard. The suit argues the rezoning request should have been approved because it met all points of the county's comprehensive land-use plan and that the 200 acres are not categorized by the state as environmentally sensitive.
County officials tell GlobeSt.com they will be responding to the suit within the required 45-day response period. A court hearing date on the suit hasn't been set.
Meanwhile, as the suit winds its way through the court process, the Orlando-Orange County Expressway Authority has offered to buy the entire 1,500-acre tract from Rossman and Cole for $25 million or about $16,667 per acre equating to $38 cents per sf. According to the Authority, the developers paid about $4,667 per acre, or 10 cents per sf, for the dirt in 2001. The Authority says the developers haven't yet responded to its buy-out offer.
The Authority is the local agency charged with buying land the state says it needs to build the Wekiva Parkway. The toll road would connect State Road 429 in Apopka to Interstate 4 in Sanford.
Rossman is president of Osprey Custom Homes Inc., a home-building company her late father, Norman A. Rossman, founded 55 years ago and now based in the MetroWest community of southwest Orlando. Rossman, Cole and Bonifay couldn't be reached by GlobeSt.com's publication deadline for additional comment.
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