ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission voted 6-1 Wednesday to accept a deal to build a toll road through Split Oak forest.
The proposal calls for a 9-mile toll road, State Road 534, which would connect Osceola County Parkway to State Road 417.
The expressway would affect about 160 acres of land out of the forest's nearly 1,700 acres — 60 acres directly and 100 additional acres indirectly.
It would start near Orlando International Airport and stretch east, paving 60 acres of the southern end of Split Oak Forest, and extend eastward to residential and commercial projects owned by Tavistock Development Co. and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Developers have offered about 1,500 acres of land in exchange for approval of the expressway in Split Oak, but opponents to the project say the road could have a domino effect.
Advocates for the protected forest said the road would damage the it beyond repair.
“I mean, this would do irreparable harm to Split Oak Forest and the animals and plants that are in it," said Valerie Anderson, president of Friends of Split Oak. "No matter how the road is designed, it would harm the ecosystems really badly, and there’s no amount of money or additional conservation land that can mitigate that harm."
Split Oak Forest Wildlife and Environmental area is jointly owned by Orange and Osceola counties, and is managed under an agreement by the FWC. Orange and Osceola counties partnered together in the 1990s to place protections on Split Oak, but the proposed development has landed them on opposite sides.
In 2020, Orange County voted for a charter amendment that called for continued protection of the forest. Orange County leaders supported the voters' decision and adopted the amendment. However, Osceola County officials took the charter amendment to court, hoping to void the decision and move forward with the toll road.
The Expressway Authority and the Florida Communities Trust’s Governing Board have already voted unanimously to approve funding and request for the project to move forward.
In 2023, the FWC agreed to negotiations for the proposed toll road. Development is already taking place outside of the forest, and direct effects would largely take place in the southern part of the forest, which lies within Osceola County.
In response to the negotiations moving forward, organizations like Friends of Split Oak Forest said that the road project is a threat to the animals and plants that live within the forest, as well as the people that go to enjoy the area. Anderson emphasized that approval of the project would set the precedent for the future, threatening protected land across Florida.
“The fate of Split Oak Forest is really important for the rest of the conservation land in the state of Florida. The legal protections that are on Split Oak are the strongest protections available to conservation land in the state," Anderson said. "If these protections can be breached, for a highway to new development — a use that’s not specifically a public benefit — then this is much more likely to occur in the future.”
Anderson added that approval of the project is likely to result in an increase in negative human and wildlife interactions.
She said advocates for the forest attended Wednesday's meeting in Daytona Beach to share their concerns.
Despite their concerns, FWC moved forward with the proposed project.