Plans for ranch stir controversy

Associated Press

DESERET RANCH, FLA.

Under one of the biggest land development plans ever proposed in Florida, a tract more than six times the size of Manhattan could be transformed from a home for cows and alligators into new housing developments for half a million people.

Over the next six decades, the plan being developed by the Mormon church-owned Deseret Ranch promises to convert the largest undeveloped section of metro Orlando into more than a dozen bustling neighborhoods. In the process, it would radically reshape Osceola County, a suburb that has been transitioning from cowboy culture into a major destination for Puerto Ricans moving to the mainland.

Opponents say the plan to convert cattle pastures to cul-de-sacs could destroy tens of thousands of acres of important habitat near the headwaters of the St. Johns River flowing north and the Kissimmee River flowing south. They also worry that Osceola County has been doing the bidding of Deseret Ranch, one of the nation’s largest ranches.

County commissioners approved the ranch’s plan unanimously in September, and now it awaits a state review.

Some environmentalists who once opposed Deseret’s proposal have dropped their objections, saying the plan shifts population growth to east of the county’s urban core, rather than to its south where development might pose a greater threat to the headwaters of the Everglades.

The plan looks ahead six decades for property that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints began purchasing more than six decades ago.