'Secretive,' 'potentially manipulative': Mayor Demings questions transparency of SunRail extension plan
Mayor Demings questions transparency of Universal's SunRail extension plan
"Secretive" and "potentially manipulative." That's how Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings is describing part of Universal Orlando Report's plan to pay for SunRail's expansion to the Orange County Convention Center and International Drive tourism district.
ORLANDO, Fla. - "Secretive" and "potentially manipulative." That's how Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings is describing part of Universal Orlando Report's plan to pay for SunRail's expansion to the Orange County Convention Center and International Drive tourism district.
He is calling out the idea of creating a special taxing district to finance a new SunRail line that would start at Orlando International Airport and take people to the convention center and eventually further south along I-Drive. While Mayor Demings said he was excited about parts of the plan, he expressed concerns about a lack of transparency around the project.
Universal Orlando Resort and a group of businesses in the area recently announced the plan, creating a special taxing district to get it done. They said Universal would be the sole property owner getting taxed to finance the project.
Mayor Demings said he likes the idea of the private sector investing in a project like this, but he added that it wasn’t until about ten minutes before the big announcement last week that the county received the application for the project.
A proposed extension of SunRail would connect the Orange County Convention Center and International Drive tourism district to the Orlando International Airport. [Orlando's Right Rail]
The mayor said he wasn’t included in that announcement, and he said it should have been discussed by the board in a public meeting. Nearly a week later, he questioned the timeline and the agenda of those behind it.
"I know that when there’s been, I won’t say the legal term or criminal term of ‘collusion,’ but some behind-the-scenes dealings that went on that was not transparent. Because of the timeliness and the timing of certain things that happened, I know what happened," he said during Tuesday's Orange County Commission meeting.
The mayor added that there have already been conversations about Brightline, Florida's higher-speed passenger rail service, connecting Orlando to Tampa. If the new SunRail project moves forward, it likely wouldn’t be complete, with trains stopping right here, before 2028.