Dear Mayor Buddy Dyer and Planning Board:

I am deeply concerned that The City of Orlando and The City Planning Division has made changes to property zoning codes and proposes to make drastic changes to property owners with R-2A, R-2B, R-3A and R-3B zoning without properly notifying every property owner of the proposed changes.

The City of Orlando and The City Planning Division have made too many drastic changes to zoning codes, which have affected people’s property rights and property values, that have gone undetected due to minimal notification to property owners. Currently, the only public notification protocol is to place a small ad in a public news publication prior to The Municipal Planning Board meeting and another small ad in a public news publication prior to Ordinance of City Council. Also, the City of Orlando posts notifications on their website.

For example, the front page of the Staff Report to The Municipal Planning Board for proposed amendment LDC2014-00363, “Duplexes and Tandems” states, “Because the adoption of this ordinance could affect all of The City of Orlando, no notices have been mailed.” The sentiment that the city doesn’t need to notify its property owners of an ordinance that “could affect all of the city” is cause for public outcry.

As a property owner, I should be contacted directly about any change, small or large, that affects my property. The City of Orlando should provide every property owner with a clear, non-biased description of any proposed change, and should notify community leaders with the same information. Volunteer community associations, Realtor associations, builders associations, and homeowner’s associations could qualify as proposed “community leaders” that could share this information with property owners. All notifications should be provided in a timely manner prior to Municipal Planning Board meetings. Property owners should be surveyed and a decision made based on survey results. Surveys should be easy to understand, written in layman’s terms, and non-biased.

Mayor Buddy Dyer, I urge you to change the current Public Communication Policy for changes that affect property owners. I further urge you to stop proposed amendment LDC2014-00363 until every affected property owner is properly notified and surveyed.