Orange County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously to approve new a school siting ordinance in cooperation with Orange County Public Schools (OCPS). The new rules allow for greater flexibility in where future public schools can be located by dropping minimum acreage requirements and not requiring sites to be built on high-traffic roads. Commissioners responded to several years of advocacy by OCPS, Bike/Walk Central Florida and other advocates seeking more neighborhood-oriented, safer school sites.
Bike/Walk Central Florida has coordinated with partners at Orange County and OCPS by providing analysis of and recommendations for the ordinance. “Our goal was to get children off our most deadly roads,” said Rick Geller, BWCF board member who championed the school siting recommendation report on behalf of the BWCF board (list of board members).
The old ordinance had not been updated since 1996 and created conflicts between the safety of children and the convenience of school location. With the new school siting ordinance, OCPS will be able to choose better, more walkable sites for new schools.
To read more about the new ordinances, click here for an Orlando Sentinel article.
