Winter Park looks to weigh in on Orange County redistricting maps

As Orange looks to add two more districts, how the map is drawn will decide how Winter Park is represented

July 21, 2025

By Beth Kassab

Winter Park officials appear poised to endorse an Orange County redistricting proposals that group the city with Maitland and Eatonville along with portions of Orlando and Apopka rather than the vast eastern rural section of the county that stretches to the Brevard County line.

A discussion about the proposed maps that will decide how the county of 1.5 million people is carved up and represented at the Board of County Commissioners is scheduled for Wednesday’s City Commission meeting.

The county districts must be redrawn after voters decided last year to grow the County Commission from the mayor plus six seats to the mayor plus eight seats.

Winter Park is currently part of District 5, which is represented by Commissioner Kelly Semrad, and stretches some 30 miles from  from Orlando’s College Park neighborhood east to Christmas and the Brevard County line. As a result the district mixes urban neighborhoods and cities like Winter Park and Maitland with the eastern section of the county where large swaths of land are still undeveloped.

Meanwhile, Eatonville, the historically Black town of 2,200 people sandwiched between Maitland and Winter Park is carved out of District 5 and grouped with Apopka, the county’s second largest city at 60,000.

A memo from City Manager Randy Knight said it would make sense to group Winter Park with Maitland, Eatonville and area to the west rather than the eastern section of the county.

“That portion of Orange County is more rural and its needs and priorities are much different than those of Winter Park,” the memo read. “Staff believe Winter Park would be better served by a district made up of other more urban areas that are largely built out, like Maitland, Eatonville, College Park, north Orlando and southeast Apopka.”

Commissioner Marty Sullivan said he agreed with that idea.

“To have nearby municipalities grouped in one district I think makes a lot of sense,” he said.

Sullivan said of the 18 maps under consideration by the redistricting committee, he like the map known as Callan-1, which stretches east to capture the campus of Full Sail University, but is compactly centered on Winter Park. That proposed district runs north to Lockhart and Fairview Shores and south to downtown Orlando.

Knight’s memo cautioned that one of the proposed maps groups Winter Park with all of Apopka and cuts out Eatonville and College Park. Given the size of Apopka the city could potentially “dominate the representation,” it said.

City officials said they would like to provide input at the next redistricting committee meeting scheduled for July 30. The process is slated to be complete by September, when the County Commission will finalize the new map with eight districts.

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