A battle between the powerful Catholic Diocese of Orlando and residents of a downtown historic neighborhood over access to a public sidewalk comes to a head Monday.
What seemed like agreed-upon terms between Lake Eola Heights Historic Neighborhood Association and the church has dissolved into a faction of the neighborhood filing an appeal of the agreement to the Orlando City Council, and drafting an ordinance they say strengthens the rules.
This week, a lawyer representing the church wrote to the city council, saying it could again seek full closure of the sidewalks.
In March, Orlando’s planning board signed off on a plan to allow gates to be locked, blocking public access to the sidewalks in the name of school safety at midnight prior to school days, but calling for them to be open in the evenings, on weekends, holidays and breaks in the school calendar.
But about 40 residents of Lake Eola Heights have appealed that decision, arguing the gates should only be closed during instructional hours, and want the church to give notice when they’ll be closed as well as implement fines to enforce the rules.
“The enforcement of all this is completely unclear. Who’s going to regulate this? Who’s going to watch over it?” said David Martens, a long-time Lake Eola Heights resident, who also serves as president of the neighborhood association.
The city council will weigh in on the appeal Monday, ultimately deciding whether the city should cede access to 5-foot-wide public sidewalks to a private entity.
The St. James Cathedral School has buildings on both sides of the 300 block of Ridgewood Street, a block north of Lake Eola.
For decades, the road has been closed to vehicular traffic following a decision by the city council in 1996. At the time, the diocese argued traffic posed a danger to students who may have to cross the street throughout the day.
In a split vote, the city council granted closure of the road but decided to keep the sidewalks open to the neighborhood’s pedestrians.
Neighbors say the walkability of Lake Eola Heights is a key tenet of its charm and also serves as a crucial pass-through for people going to Lake Eola’s numerous, well-attended events.
In December, the diocese applied for a full abandonment of the block of Ridgewood Street, calling for the complete closure of the sidewalks. Bishop John Noonan hired prominent attorney Greg Lee, who has previously been a fundraiser for Mayor Buddy Dyer, to represent them in the effort.
The application cited a need to secure the downtown campus from an “increase in incidents of school violence.”
“The bicycle and pedestrian easements that have been retained create an inability for [St. James Cathedral School] to secure its campus,” the initial application reads. “SJCS feels that the health, safety and general welfare of the children that attend the school is of greater import than retaining the bicycle and pedestrian easements.”
In the lead-up to the hearing, some neighbors feared the diocese was really seeking control of the road in order to unite its two properties, and set up redevelopment of the land or a sale.
However, on the same day of the 1996 vote to close the road, the bishop at the time filed a deed restriction stating that if the school closes for at least six months, is sold or conveyed, then the city “shall be entitled to retake possession of the Property, for use as a public right-of-way.”
In a letter to Dyer and city commissioners this week, Lee said there was no interest by the diocese to sell the school to a developer, and that the safety of students was their motivation.
A day before the planning board hearing in March, Lee filed an addendum, laying out the conditions for which the diocese wouldn’t seek full sidewalk closure. In the hearing, a member of the volunteer neighborhood association board backed the conditions, stating, “We are fully supportive of St James acting in good faith as they’ve outlined.”
Members of the planning board offered slight tweaks but approved it, though during the meeting, several members offered reservations about handing over control of the right-of-way to the church.
Days later, Chris Betsher, an attorney who lives a few blocks from the school, appealed the ruling to the city council, citing concerns with the procedure of the planning meeting as well as with the overall proposal. About 40 neighbors signed onto the appeal, including Martens and other neighborhood association board members.
The appeal takes two paths: one, citing procedural concerns with the planning board meeting, and a second, taking issue with giving discretion of when the sidewalks are open to the school, as well as not clearly defining what a “scheduled campus activity” is, and not clearly defining when the gates would be locked and unlocked.
Betsher’s appeal proposes “hours when the pedestrian and bicycle easements are open to the public should be posted on signage visible to the public on a gate.” It also seeks a way to enforce the agreement –– such as imposing fines for violations –– and requires advanced notice to close the sidewalk.
“The school has proposed that they can tell the city of Orlando when and where they can close the property,” he said. “There is no criteria. There is no recourse if they violate that. There is no defined hours. … The substance behind it is so thin that you can poke holes through that forever.”
Betsher said he’s also concerned it creates a precedent for other private entities –– or even schools like nearby Howard Middle School –– to seek road closures outside their campuses as well.
In a letter sent to the city council this week, Lee, the diocese lawyer, said it disagreed with the appeal and wouldn’t agree with the further conditions proposed by Betsher, and said if the neighborhood association didn’t back the conditions agreed to by the planning board, the diocese would again seek full closure of the sidewalk.
“In the event that [Lake Eola Heights Historic Neighborhood Association] has migrated from its position of support for these conditions and is now supporting the expanded conditions set forth in the Appeal, SJCS would like to revert back to its original request to vacate the easements in their entirety as set forth in the Application,” it reads.
