Officials cite dangerous conditions and promise resident assistance, but compensation, relocation and redevelopment questions remain
By The Orlando Advocate News Team
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, according to the county, which reports spending more than $3.5 million on stabilization efforts.
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.
Orange County says each affected household will receive a case manager who can connect residents with available services. Officials have not yet publicly detailed how many households remain, how relocation will be funded, what compensation owners could receive or whether residents will have access to independent legal assistance.
Those questions must be answered before the legal process becomes a redevelopment process.
Tymber Skan’s residents should not be forced to choose between remaining in unsafe housing and leaving without a secure place to live. Owners should receive understandable information about valuation, liens and their legal rights. Renters and other occupants must not disappear from the county’s responsibility merely because they do not hold title.
The case also demands a public accounting of the past.
Residents deserve to know how conditions deteriorated for so long, how the county’s $3.5 million was spent, which interventions failed and what officials learned that could prevent another community from reaching the same point.
Resolving Tymber Skan may require difficult legal and physical changes. The measure of success, however, cannot be an emptied property alone.
It must include safe housing, fair treatment and a future in which the people who endured the community’s decline are not excluded from its recovery.
- Kevin Seraaj
- Kevin Seraaj
- Kevin Seraaj
- Kevin Seraaj
