School Board takes first step to build stadium on Windermere High campus

Windermere High School opened in 2017 after delays, controversy and lawsuits, and even then was built only after the Orange County School Board agreed to construct the school’s football stadium off campus at a park nearly two miles away.

Tuesday, the school board voted to seek a reversal of that decision, a first step that could mean an on-campus stadium is ready for games in the fall of 2024.

Orange County Public Schools officials say the stadium at the Orange County park creates logistical hardships for the school, adds to traffic woes in the area and poses a safety hazard for students and visitors because of its limited parking and shelter.

“Not being able to effectively and quickly evacuate the park in the event of bad weather or another emergency remains a concern,” said Commissioner Nicole Wilson.

All but one of the other 22 traditional OCPS high schools have stadiums on campus, and so will a new high school slated to open next year to relieve crowding at Lake Nona High School.

“We’ve tried jointly to make the park site work,” said school board member Pam Gould, whose district includes Windermere High, in an interview prior to Tuesday’s vote. “It just doesn’t make sense any more. It just doesn’t.”

Complaints about the stadium at the park began almost as soon as it opened in 2018, with some parents calling the off-site location inconvenient, unsafe and unfair.

School — and, perhaps more importantly, county — officials think opposition to a stadium on campus has faded since the issue was first discussed a decade ago. At the time, some residents opposed the construction of the high school in what was then a more-rural area and even after the school was approved argued against a stadium, fearful of lights and noise.

But the fast-growing west Orange region is now filled with residential and commercial developments, and plenty of Windermere High parents want an on-campus stadium.

The school board Tuesday approved an amendment to the settlement agreement it entered into in 2015 with Orange County. That agreement allowed Windermere High to be constructed as long as its football stadium was off site at Deputy Scott Pine Community Park.

The agreement was on the board’s consent agenda and was voted for without discussion.

Staff from OCPS and the county jointly worked on the amendment that would allow OCPS to build its standard high school stadium on Windermere’s campus. The Orange County Commission is expected to vote on the same amendment at its meeting June 20, the first of several county meetings and votes. The agreement will be on the board’s consent agenda, which is typically approved without discussion.

“That gets the ball rolling,” said Jon Weiss, deputy county manager.

After that vote, the public will get to weigh in on the change at least twice, first when the issue is reviewed by the seven members of the Board of Zoning Adjustment, an appointed panel which issues an advisory opinion, and then when the request to build a stadium on campus comes before the county commissioners. The dates for those hearings have not been set yet but likely will be in the fall.

Gould said she and Wilson, whose district includes the high school campus and the neighborhoods where residents opposed construction of the school, may jointly host a community meeting about the proposed stadium.

Windermere High, which opened in 2017, was built with room for a stadium on its nearly 66-acre campus in case the 2015 agreement was ever renegotiated. Adding a stadium now would involve building bleachers and other facilities around what is now a practice field. The project would cost about $3 million and construction could start in October, if the county approves the changes, said Lauren Roth, an OCPS spokesperson.

Under that timetable, the new stadium could be ready for games in September, 2024, she said.

Wilson said aerial views of the high school site and its surrounding neighbors today and from a decade ago show how the landscape has changed. Multi-family housing, condominiums, new commercial development including a Publix supermarket and an Aldi’s grocery and eight restaurants have moved into the area, she said.

The school board entered into the 2015 agreement because it was desperate to get Windermere High built to relieve crowding at West Orange High School, then packed with 4,200 students on a campus meant for 3,000. It needed county zoning approval because the site was in a “rural settlement” area.

The county commission had originally denied the school board’s application to build the school following a contentious public hearing. The school board then sued the county but ultimately dropped its lawsuits and built Windermere High on its preferred site on Winter Garden Vineland Road but constructed the stadium off-campus at the park on Ficquette Road.

Wilson said that while some residents of the developments across the street from the school still had concerns, many “overwhelmingly” want a stadium on campus and dislike the current location at the park, which means athletes, marching band members, students and spectators are bussed to the stadium on game nights.

“I want to make sure everybody understands this is not going to change the footprint of the existing school,” Wilson said. “They’re basically putting bleachers at the practice field.”