The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is seeking to annex more than 52,000 of its 300,000 acres of ranchland outside of Orlando into the resort-rich city, a move that would expand the footprint of the Florida metropolis by roughly 60%.
According to a news release from Farmland Reserve, a subsidiary of the Utah-based faith, company and city planners would work in tandem “to envision a framework for smart growth in future decades, but until that growth happens the land will remain in agriculture.”
The announcement, made Monday, comes amid growing angst among developers in the area about a November ballot initiative that would make annexations in Orange County, where Orlando is located, more difficult.
Ashley Papagni, a City Hall spokesperson, described the November ballot measure in a statement of her own as a “functional ban” on voluntary annexations and that the city is working to review all applications before an amendment might take effect.
The Farmland Reserve release notes that the decision to file with the city follows a failed attempt to collaborate with the county — and comes with the benefit of placing the property under a single municipal government, thus avoiding “piecemeal planning.”
“We are a caring, responsible landowner,” Doug Rose, president of Farmland Reserve, said in the release, “who works sustainably and gives back to our communities.”
Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings seconded this in a statement of his own, explaining he has “the greatest admiration for Farmland Reserve” and the team that manages the massive church property, known as Deseret Ranches.
(John Raoux | AP) Cowboys herd cattle from one pasture to another at Florida's Deseret Ranches in 2015.
Included in that roster is Clint Richardson, the ranch’s general manager.
“Central Florida is our home,” he stressed in the Farmland Reserve release. “This is not just where we work — it’s where we live and raise our families.”
That personal connection, he said, is one reason his team remains committed “to working with our neighbors to find solutions to regional issues to preserve what we all love about living here.”
Sustainability, the release noted repeatedly, is a guiding principle for Farmlands Reserve and Deseret Ranches.
The Orlando Sentinel pointed out, however, that the annexation would, if successful, “place some of Central Florida’s most important wildlife habitat, open spaces and water resources — an expansive cradle of sloughs, marshes and open water between the Econlockhatchee and St. Johns rivers — under the oversight of a government entity that has relatively limited experience in those areas, the city of Orlando.”
The press contact for Farmland Reserve said he would not provide answers to follow-up questions or provide comment beyond what was contained in the news release.
With an estimated $16 billion in real estate across the nation, the church ranks among the nation’s top private landholders, with assets ranging from farmlands to shiny commercial enclaves. And while it retains real estate footholds across the country, the faith has taken a particular shine to the Sunshine State.
In July, news broke that the church had bought an eight-story, 315-unit apartment building in Plantation, Florida, for $133 million, according to The Real Deal news outlet, or about $422,222 per unit.
The purchase in the southern part of the state by Property Reserve Inc., a commercial real estate arm of the church, came on the heels of its acquisition last December of large swaths of an industrial park in the Miami area for $174 million.
The faith has vast landholdings in northern and central Florida, including hundreds of thousands of forested acres in the Panhandle.