Lawyer, environmentalist and mom of three Nicole Wilson, 53, is running in the Aug. 20 election to hold her District 1 seat on the Orange County Commission. She’s being challenged by Winter Garden businessman and dad of three Austin Arthur.

The election was originally slated for Nov. 5 but got moved up when a former firefighter with an axe to grind with Wilson over her support for vaccine mandates during the pandemic, filed to run as a write-in candidate on June 14, the last day to qualify for the election. Meanwhile, the Orange County Fire Fighters Association I.A.F.F. Local 2057 “unanimously endorsed” her, citing her “commitment to transparency,” “dedicated service” and “ability to continue serving the best interests of the residents of Orange County.”

During her term, Wilson helped steer American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) money to District 1 for three new fire stations — Station 44 on Reams Road, Station 32 in Four Corners, and coming to the Town Center area will be Station 48. ARPA funds were also directed to achieving ratings certifications that help to lower property insurance rates. When the state isn’t helping with homeowner’s or auto insurance, this is one way that local government can help, Wilson said in an interview with VoxPopuli.

“We understand that response time during a fire or emergency is lower when you have those fire stations close by, so that’s the kind of investment that literally lowers the cost of living in a way that a local government can invest,” Wilson said.

“Smart Sustainable Growth"

Smart, sustainable growth is the “number one issue on everyone’s mind,” Wilson said. Everything branches off from that, she said, pointing to environmental protection and sustainability as well as walkable, bike-able communities and affordable housing.

“I've already laid the groundwork for that we're moving towards. But that's why I want to be your commissioner for the next four years, to try to get some of the final things across the finish line. But unless they are actually implemented, unless they are seen through, it doesn't do me any good to have them on paper.”

She’s looking at what’s called “adaptive reuse” to create more affordable housing options — everything from repurposing foreclosed hotels to building out empty strip malls. And she’d like to find ways to incentivize private developers to invest in building housing in these areas.

“Look at an aerial view of West Colonial Drive from Downtown out to the county line, and you see sprawling parking lots right in front of these empty strip malls. These are areas where we already have sidewalks and we already have water going. We already have transit stops. To me that is where we're going to be able to see an inventory uptick without impacting our environment and areas that still have forests. When adaptive reuse projects come before the Board of County Commission, it is very exciting because they're not done as often as we'd like.”

She’s also in favor of accessible dwelling units — think mother-in-law cottages — newly permitted under rezoning, to help ease the housing shortage.

What’s key, Wilson said, is forcing developers to pony up impact fees to pay for the infrastructure to support housing projects, rather than have that burden fall on tax payers. Wilson pointed to the 2021 impact fee hike she voted to implement — the first in 15 years and the highest allowable by state law.

“The ‘infrastructure first’ people need to understand that my predecessor and my predecessor’s predecessor gave literal rebates to developers of sprawling single family houses out into the far nether regions of our county on both sides, and then didn't force them, or didn't ask them, to make sure that they were paying into what we needed for transportation for those developments. So we're making up for a long time.”

Disney workers housing

But as bullish as Wilson is on affordable housing, she was not in favor of Walt Disney World’s employee housing project as it stands now. While she liked that Disney wanted to house workers who are "sleeping in their cars,” the location was problematic. Disney put up 80 acres off Hartzog Road in Horizon West for the planned 1,400-unit project, which includes 1,000 units of affordable housing.

“We have no Lynx routes in the area. We have no light rail. And this is Disney. I was like, You guys know how to do a monorail. Do something. Help us do this because we can't plop down another 1,400 families and force them to rely on single rider cars to get to work.”

An online survey from Channel 6/ClickOrlando found 52 percent against the project. But Wilson said there’s a misconception that the recent ‘transmittal vote’ to the state is the “one and only vote” on the project. Another meeting is scheduled for the coming weeks to address public concerns about pedestrian safety, road safety and school overcrowding. In other words, there’s still time for this project to change.

“We have to stay really focused on those quality of life issues and how Disney, as a partner, can help us get those questions answered,” she said.

Protections for rural land

Wilson helped establish the Lake Avalon Rural Settlement District and voted to put the county commission’s charter review committee’s rural boundary initiative on the November ballot. Essentially the amendment raises the voting threshold for project approval.

“We’ve seen all kinds of tight votes with one swing vote making a difference in development plans that impact thousands and thousands of people,” Wilson said. “The ballot measure calls for development projects that come through that are going to change the underlying land use map, to require a supermajority of the board of county commission for approval. The supermajority tells us there was a compelling reason to change that underlying land use.”

Reaching the commissioner

One of the issues that Arthur, Wilson’s opponent, has hammered her on is accessibility. He’s claimed that she stood up Historic East Winter Garden constituents who wanted to meet with her to discuss flooding in the historically Black neighborhood four times. Supporters of Special Hearts Farm, an agriculture-based training center for adults with intellectual disabilities, which is seeking a new location where it can build a residential facility for its members in addition to the farm, are also unhappy with Wilson because of missed meetings.

Last summer, some members of Tildenville’s Safe Neighborhood Association complained to VoxPopuli and other news outlets that they felt their neighborhood had been put on the “back burner.” There was enthusiasm to annex into Winter Garden so that police response times would be faster than with Orange County, and families could take advantage of the discounted rates city residents receive for things like holiday gap camps at the Jesse Brock Community Center. But residents said requests for materials to help explain annexation to the community or assistance with a trailer for community meetings to discuss annexation went nowhere.

"What I've done, and I mean from day one, is to provide them information about what it would mean if they wanted to request an annexation hearing, and then I have tried to see if that's what they wanted to do,” Wilson said. “I have consistently heard from them that they don't trust that process.”

Meanwhile, she said, she worked with Winter Garden and Orange County officials to establish a safe neighborhood for Tildenville under the county's safe neighborhood division and got grants to revamp the drainage and get extra light in a neighborhood cul de sac.

Beyond that, Wilson pushes back on the idea that she's unavailable, pointing to more than 4,000 constituent cases closed and more than 400 community meetings. She instituted office hours in cities throughout her district in which any resident could make an appointment with her without having to go downtown.

“The same opportunity to meet with me is open to all. There is nobody more powerful than anybody else in getting my attention,” she said.