ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Orange County Commissioners are reluctantly giving the green light to a controversial plan for a development in a sensitive wetlands area. The plan calls for hotel rooms, apartments, and commercial buildings in the Shingle Creek Basin.
Commissioners voted 4-3 Tuesday afternoon to approve the Tuscana Project’s land use plan application after voting unanimously to reject it in May 2025. Tuesday, some commissioners feared losing a possible lawsuit could cost taxpayers huge amounts of money.
The Shingle Creek Basin contains hiking trails, wildlife, and wetlands that form the headwaters of the Everglades. A group of landowners, Shingle Creek Co-Owners, LLC and developer Geyer Development, LLC, want to build more than 1,000 hotel rooms and 4,000 apartments in the Shingle Creek Basin. County leaders say the project would eliminate more than 20 acres of wetlands…