Winter Park closes in on major CRA expansion, celebrates wins from Hurricane Milton

The CRA is expected to help fund stormwater projects that became a high priority after Hurricane Ian in 2022.The impacts felt by Hurricane Milton were less severe

Oct. 17, 2024

(Photo caption: Commissioners Craig Russell and Kris Cruzada assist residents with sandbags before Hurricane Milton made landfall last week. Courtesy of the city of Winter Park.)

By Beth Kassab

Winter Park officials on Thursday celebrated relatively few power outages and far more contained flooding that occurred after Hurricane Milton compared with Hurricane Ian two years earlier as they also took steps to finalize a major expansion of the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency.

The CRA expansion will help pay for a number of projects within its boundaries that cover downtown from Interlachen Boulevard to roughly U.S. 17-92 and — if the new borders get approval from neighboring Orlando and Orange County — Fairbanks Avenue to Interstate 4.

The two-year process to expand the CRA and extend its sunset date from 2027 to 2037 coincided with the time Winter Park also contended with the fallout from Hurricane Ian, which raked through Central Florida on Sept. 29, 2022 caused the worst inland flooding in modern memory. The storm dropped 13 inches of rain, according to the tally from Orlando International Airport.

Milton brought heavy rains, too, but the Winter Park total is estimated in the 5 to 6-inch range, according to Gloria Eby, the city’s director of Natural Resources & Sustainability.

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The proposed CRA expansion.

Less rain combined with actions the city vowed to take ahead of the next big storm led to fewer problems overall.

Mayor Sheila DeCiccio commended the city staff for “a truly outstanding job,” noting “everything I have been to — people are in awe of the city of Winter Park.”

City Manager Randy Knight said “a lot of improvements have been made since Ian.”

As a result, there were no reports of flooding inside homes this time and most Winter Park residents had power from the city-owned electric utility throughout the storm. At peak outage, 275 customers were without power, according to the city.

“The electric utility knocked it out of the park,” Knight said, crediting the city’s long-standing efforts to underground all of the city’s power lines, which is about 80% complete.

“It took courage 20 years ago when this commission decided to buy the utility,” he said. “Every commission since then has kept [the undergrounding project] in the budget … and we’re seeing the benefits today.”

Storms like Ian and Milton, though, brought far more rain than wind to the city. And that causes more issues with flooding versus trees downing power lines.

As a result, the commission has focused on studying stormwater projects. In fact, a meeting for commissioners to discuss the results of water basin studies was postponed twice in recent weeks — once for Hurricane Helene and then again for Milton. The meeting is now set to take place next week.

DeCiccio said Thursday that the additional money from the CRA expansion would help, in part, with drainage issues that fall within the agency’s boundaries. Orlando and Orange County are set to take up their ends of the agreement before the end of the month and, if approved, the CRA expansion would mean an additional $57 million in tax revenue that would remain in Winter Park rather than going to the county.

The city took measures to avoid flooding ahead of Milton such as opening lake drains or adjusting weirs to improve water flow where possible.

But more is needed. For example, before Milton landed city workers drained the pond at MLK Park near the library, but some streets still flooded nearby, though no water was reported inside homes this time around.

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