Officials cite dangerous conditions and promise resident assistance, but compensation, relocation and redevelopment questions remain
By The Orlando Advocate News Team
Key Takeaways
- Orange County initiates a process to terminate the condominium associations at Tymber Skan due to unsafe conditions.
- Only eight of the original 49 buildings remain standing, with over $3.5 million spent on stabilization efforts.
- Residents will receive case managers to help access services, but details on relocation and compensation remain unclear.
- The focus is on redeveloping the area while ensuring that residents receive support during the transition.
- Success should mean safe housing and fair treatment for residents, not just an empty property for developers.
Orange County commissioners have begun a legal process that could ultimately end the condominium associations at Tymber Skan on the Lake, placing the future of the long-troubled property—and the people still living there—in the hands of the courts.
The Board of County Commissioners voted Tuesday to authorize the County Attorney’s Office to seek equitable termination of the associations and appointment of a termination trustee.
The county emphasized that the vote did not authorize an immediate sale or demolition. A trustee, if appointed by a court, could eventually oversee the division and sale of the property.
County officials say Tymber Skan has deteriorated steadily for approximately 20 years. Only eight of its original 49 buildings remain. The County reports spending more than $3.5 million on stabilization efforts over that time.
Unsafe buildings, illegal dumping and deteriorating common areas have created conditions the county says can no longer be allowed to continue.
The danger may be clear. What happens next is not. Not exactly.
Orange County says each affected household will receive a case manager who can connect residents with available services. Officials have not yet publicly detailed– or perhaps determined– if each of the eight households remaining is occupied by only one family), and if not, how relocation will be handled and funded; what compensation owners could receive; or whether residents will have access to independent legal assistance.
The county emphasizes that no residents will be forcibly removed without support. A choice between remaining in unsafe housing and no housing is not a choice at all. The county promises transition planning that includes “potential” rental assistance and access to social services for up to a year.
A termination trustee will manage the potential sale of the property, with the express goal of termination management in this case being the ultimate redevelopment of the area. Tymber Skan was once a neighborhood jewel that thrived as a vibrant condominium community until financial mismanagement, hurricane damage, and the foreclosure crisis of 2008 came along.
With a close to $4 million invested in the infrastructure over the past two decades, the County has every right to bring this sad tale to an end. Residents, officials say, will be guided through the transition with support from case managers and through outreach efforts directed at connecting them with housing and relocation resources. This is important. Renters and other occupants must not disappear from the county’s responsibility merely because they have no ownership interests.
Resolving Tymber Skan may require difficult legal and physical changes. The measure of success, however, cannot simply be an emptied property in search of developers. Success should include safe housing, fair treatment and a future in which the people who endured the community’s 20-year decline are not excluded from its recovery.
- Kevin Seraaj
- Kevin Seraaj
- Kevin Seraaj
- Kevin Seraaj
