For Lake Nona residents, a proposed fuel farm is not what they would consider their “field of dreams.” The Greater Orlando Aviation Authority (GOAA) has proposed to construct a field of fuel on a portion of nearly 1,300 acres designated for expansion of the Orlando International Airport (OIA) and has plans for clearing and filling wetlands on a site near the corner of State Road 528 and Narcoossee Road. This would place the project just a short distance from many residents back yard. The controversy has become so heated that a committee of concerned citizens was formed demanding changes to the proposed project.

With so much current traffic and still growing, who could blame OIA for wanting to expand operations? “Let me make it clear, none of us are saying that the airport should not be able to develop its land, we just want them to be responsible about it and be protective of the neighborhoods around them,” says Deborah L. Moskowitz, Esq., a resident of NorthLake Park near the proposed OIA development. “The residents of Northlake Park are very concerned that this proposed project will ruin the quality of life we enjoy not only here in NLP, but throughout the entire Lake Nona area corridor. We are concerned about light, noise and air pollution, flooding, the endangered species that inhabit that land and their habitat being destroyed. We are concerned about depreciation of our home values.”

Moskowitz is one of 60 NorthLake Park residents that constitute the GOAA Project Concerned Citizens Committee. Many Northlake Park residents were drawn to the area by the high concentration of wetlands. “We are grateful that through our organized efforts, we were able to get the Army Corp of Engineers as well as the FAA to undertake an environmental assessment,” states Moskowitz. “We believe that an entire environmental impact statement is necessary.”

The GOAA bought most of the property in the early 1990s, but purchased about 170 acres across from Northlake Park just about three years ago. One of the plans for the site included above-ground tanks to store fuel and underground pipelines to bring the fuel in from fuel terminals as well as pipelined out to OIA runways.

“My main concern is that GOAA is going to strip the proposed site and flatten it as soon as they get their permits, even though they may not build anything on it for five to 10 years,” says Helgi Soutar, a Citizens Committee member. “The elimination of the wetlands will affect the natural flow of groundwater towards the lakes and streams to the south.”

Another resident, Selena Nobilo, states: “We just want GOAA to keep as many of the wetlands as possible and include buffers between the airport facility and Dowden Road and Narcoosee Road.”

The intense effort by the Citizens Committee has yet to make any changes to the proposed fuel fields. As Moskowitz points out, at the last meeting with OIA officials, Committee members were told by airport executives that they had no intention of modifying their plans. “We have met with airport executives multiple times including Steve Gardner, Rob Brancheau and Bob Gilbert. At the airport’s request, we developed a conceptual plan and submitted it to them. The plan we devised frankly would make them more potential tax revenue than any plan they have publicly released to date and at the same time, protect the surrounding communities. We would very much welcome the opportunity to sit down with GOAA again to resolve this to the satisfaction of all parties and I still believe that a compromise is possible.”

Article by Johnny Duncan