Civic Positions/Experience
The City of Winter Garden's Architectural Review & Historic Preservation Board, West Orange Habitat for Humanity, The West Orange Scholarship Foundation, One Winter Garden, Eight Waves Children & Family Services, Lift Disability Network, Winter Garden Rotary Club, Central Florida YMCA, Explore and S
Campaign Phone
(407)305-2052
Twitter
https://twitter.com/AustinArthurWO
Orange County can largely be defined as being in a state of crisis. There is a housing crisis, a homeless crisis, and an infrastructure crisis… in short there is a leadership crisis. There is also a serious desire by nearly all residents to preserve our ever-depleting green space. The way to balance these critical (and sometimes conflicting) issues is by fostering a partnership mentality between our residents, our county staff, municipalities, and property owners. When we create adversarial and ideological environments, the people that lose the greatest are the residents. We must have an infrastructure-first partnership mentality. I intend to meet with all stakeholders to bring forth solutions for residents on housing and infrastructure.
The Historic East Winter Garden Neighborhood was built during segregation and still suffers its generational effects. I volunteer in community organizations like 'One Winter Garden,' focused on civic engagement. Fellow residents and I formed the community that spearheaded opposition to OCPS placing a bus depot on top of one of the first Black High Schools in Orange County history, Drew High School. This critical area is also a mixed used community abutting residential homes. In strong partnership with the City of Winter Garden we activated residents and put a stop to this plan that would have harmed this community further.
See: https://www.wftv.com/news/local/ocps-leaders-discuss-building-bus-depot-winter-garden/PMVYYPBSQVFERPT6FOP5VADBCE/
We have a housing crisis in Orange County and we must support affordable, attainable, and workforce housing. The way we do this is by incentivizing stakeholders to bring forth such opportunities and partnering with organizations such as Habitat for Humanity (to which I am a board member) and United Against Poverty Orlando, these organizations are vetted and proven. We must partner with stakeholders to ensure we are also finding the right places for such projects to bring residents and others together in a unified manner to solve the issue at hand. Universal Studios also recently provided a great example of private dollars, in partnership with Orange County, creating a great workforce housing community- we need to encourage more of this.
Smart growth means projects must be in character with the surrounding area and must have infrastructure funded. Residents are weary of development coming through without infrastructure in place to support the increased traffic and demand on schools. To solve this we must be working in partnership when development does come, so to ensure infrastructure is being funded rather than a constant game of catch up. We must be heavily involved with bodies such as Metroplan for planning and funding as well as revisiting the need for a dedicated new revenue stream where our tourist visitors chip in for their usage. We also must ensure the Sunshine Corridor is seen through to alleviate car trips from our residents and especially our visitors.
- Have development pay its way with strong impact fees and hard negotiations for more land donations for schools, parks, and green spaces.
- End the current Commissioner’s practice of not meeting with certain stakeholders and landowners.
- Require road and infrastructure improvements before houses are all built out. We can’t keep playing “catch up” on infrastructure.
- Work with Metroplan and Orange County staff to prioritize road improvements.
- Early and regular engagement with residents to identify issues and concerns, not just at election time.
- Protect rural settlements in Orange County’s Comprehensive Land Use Plan and do not permit encroachment into these settlements.
Civic Positions/Experience
Attorney, Community Action Board Member, Children and Family Services Board Member, Central Florida Water Cooperative Board Member
Campaign Phone
407-906-7713
Twitter
@VoteWilson_D1
I am running for re-election because though I've successfully championed quality of life investments and environmental protections, like the 1000 acres added to conservation, and the wetland protection ordinance, I still have more to get across the finish line. Advocating for smart growth and policies that prevent urban sprawl and incentivize redevelopment. Transit and transportation improvements that include bike/walk infrastructure. And solving the housing crisis through more missing middle housing options in our urban core. I also prioritize transparency and accessibility and have championed processes to involve the public at all levels. I also spearheaded an effort to eliminate conflicts of interest in the permitting process.
I was able to bring the Windermere High School Stadium back to the campus and in fall, 2024 they will be playing their first home games. I worked closely with OCPS officials, school officials, neighbors, and students to obtain approvals and consensus on a design that would not be intrusive to neighboring communities but would allow students a safe game-time experience. Windermere High School Students had to use a field about a mile from school that did not have any place to shelter in the event of a weather emergency and insufficient parking which led to dangerous road crossings. The safety of our students was the primary purpose for the effort but they will also have the opportunity to build school spirit and enjoy "home field" advantage.
I supported the recent adoption of Housing First strategies to increase the inventory of affordable housing. We passed a housing trust fund and identified County properties that could be eligible for affordable housing. We passed a Tenants Bill of Rights and opened an Office of Tenant Services to prevent renters from losing their housing. I advocate for incentivizing projects in areas that already have the infrastructure to keep the costs low and to ensure that services are readily available to residents. Affordable housing is only successful if it includes a transit plan, and educational opportunities and is accessible to large employers.
Smart growth must include preserving historic and rural areas while still inviting a diversity of economic development activities in the urban core. Compact design with a mix of uses, inclusive, affordable, and convenient mass transit system, and multi-modal transportation options that include all users including pedestrians. Smart growth includes the preservation of environmentally sensitive areas and a design that incorporates open spaces and green places. Finally, sustainability and resiliency are key factors in smart growth, we need to incentivize less waste going to landfills and look for renewable energy sources to decrease our carbon footprint.
We are working to adopt Vision 2050 as a much-needed update to the County's Comprehensive Plan. The goal is to preserve the character of our historic rural and natural areas while providing a diversity of housing options and strengthening older commercial districts. Preservation of rural and natural areas is critical for water filtration and recharge, air quality, and cooling effects. Last month, I brought forward a Preservation District Ordinance in a District 1 rural community and it was passed unanimously.
