Orange County, Florida, Bans 'Big Boxes' For One Year

Orange County, Florida, Commissioners enacted a one-year ban on approvals for new 'big-box' retail stores in the unincorporated county until stronger land development rules can be put into place. A citizens group that monitors Wal-Mart store building, the "Wal-Mart Alliance for Reform Now" (WARN), said the moratorium may be the first in Florida.

"We still have a long way to go, but this really shows that citizens can make a difference," said Laura Johns, a WARN spokeswoman.

"Commissioner Bob Sindler cast the lone dissenting vote, saying the issues residents were concerned about applied to even much smaller stores and a moratorium went too far.

'I'm not sure there's anything magical about 100,000 square feet [stores].'

Commissioners once considered the moratorium on stores larger than 100,000 square feet but later amended that to as small as 75,000 square feet."

Few communities in Central Florida have taken a hard line on megastore approvals.

"The moratorium will temporarily halt a proposed 193,000-square-foot, 24-hour Wal-Mart at John Young and Central Florida parkways, where hundreds of upset residents have argued that crime rates will skyrocket and home values will plummet. They feared roadways would become unsafe when trucks roll along near the local middle and high schools."