DOZENS OF PEOPLE TOOK TO THE MIC AT TODAY'S CITY COUNCIL MEETING TO SPEAK FOR AND AGAINST THE PROPOSED MORATORIUM
Orlando City Council just approved a temporary 36-month moratorium on the Downtown Historic Preservation District on June 22, allowing projects to bypass the Historic Preservation Board for the next three years. The vote was 4-2, with Commissioner Patty Sheehan and Bakari Burns casting the dissenting votes among present commissioners. Commissioner Ortiz (who is running for mayor) was absent. He did lead everyone in singing Sheehan an awkward “Happy Birthday” earlier in the meeting, though.
Commissioners Chapin, Keen, and Rose joined Mayor Dyer in supporting the measure. You can watch their statements below.
Commissioner Chapin argued that the current ordinance is decades old and failing to produce the results residents want. He said the issue is not about historic preservation itself but about creating a vibrant downtown with more housing, investment, and economic activity. Chapin noted that property owners have repeatedly sought to invest in historic buildings with proposals like new restaurants and outdoor dining, only to get bogged down in discussions about mural colors, awning materials, and bathroom locations.
“A historic building with no tenants, no customers, no residents, and no investment may be preserved physically, but it’s not preserved as a living part of the city,” Chapin said, expanding on that and saying when he thinks of Church Street’s best days, that he remembers, “Nickel Beer Night, not the color of the grout.”
He drew a distinction between preserving history and freezing it. “The best way to protect historic buildings is to keep them relevant, occupied, invested in, and economically viable,” he said.
Commissioner Keen said the moratorium allows the city to better understand how to balance preservation with economic competition. “Preservation is most successful when buildings are occupied, maintained, and economically viable,” he said.
Commissioner Rose leaned into the message that the moratorium is temporary and focused on “…removing barriers to investment while downtown faces vacant properties and declining foot traffic.” She emphasized that demolition reviews would continue and that projects would still go through multiple approval processes.
Sheehan, still the only commissioner to push back against the timeline and the moratorium itself, outright objected to the data presented to justify the moratorium. She also got out from behind the podium to present a slideshow of her own, positing several questions to the council that weren’t directly answered. Watch her slideshow below.
The historic preservation district covers only 35 acres within the 1,664-acre CRA district, Sheehan noted. “Yet they’re blaming 35 acres for the problems of 1,664 acres. I don’t think that’s fair.”
She pointed out that the Historic Preservation Board has rejected zero applications in the past five years and has approved numerous projects including new storefronts, cafes, awnings, nanowall glass doors, and even a bridge at Church Street Station. “If the board is stopping everything, where are these approvals coming from?” she asked.
Sheehan showed slides of buildings at risk under the moratorium: the Bumby Hardware building (1886), the Rogers Keaney building, the old railway depot (1890), the Hunt Brandon building, the Beachum Theater, and the Crest building.
She challenged the city’s focus on projects costing $5 million and up, saying restaurant renovations in historic buildings don’t require that level of investment. She also noted that empty storefronts exist throughout downtown in newer buildings, not just the historic district—pointing to the Plaza, Mandarin Salera, 55 West, and Society buildings as examples of failed development.
Sheehan emphasized that the McCrory’s and Woolworth buildings were demolished through the current system when City Council overrode the HPB’s recommendation to preserve the facades. “The current process did not block redevelopment,” she said. The resulting Plaza building, built with $6 million in CRA funds for its theater, now sits mostly vacant with closed escalators and empty storefronts.
Sheehan asked the council to defer the second reading vote to allow for more thorough evaluation and discussion. She proposed bringing together city staff, the Historic Preservation Board, property owners, and the public to review the ordinance’s actual impact.
“The city has not shown that preservation is the cause,” Sheehan said. “The city’s own data shows downtown is already growing under the current framework.”
Despite her impassioned presentation, the other commissioners thanked her for her time and read their prepared statements before voting in support of the moratorium.
The moratorium was meant to go into effect immediately upon adoption, but has been pushed back to August in an effort by the mayor’s office to appease the state and not have funding pulled for not giving the required 30 days’ notice of the change in procedure. More on that HERE.
