League of Women Voters of Seminole County History
PARKS
‘It Would Be a Very Different Place’: the Parks Referendum of 1970
Pat Burkett casually mentioned her interest in parks and conserving Seminole County’s natural spaces at her first League of Women Voters Seminole County meeting. When she left, Ms. Burkett was chair of parks and recreation committee.
“Dangerous place!” Ms. Burkett wrote years later in an e-mail to a friend. She invested decades in, first, preserving some of Seminole County’s most attractive green spaces for public enjoyment, and then, in teaching its children about the natural world. Seminole County only owned 30 acres of parkland in 1968. Agriculture still dominated, but I-4 was under construction and speculators saw opportunity.
“We were fast becoming a bedroom community for Orange County,” Ms. Burkett said. “Land prices skyrocketed.”
If Seminole County were to have a meaningful park system, and to protect prime groundwater recharge areas, proponents had to hurry. Ms. Burkett and fellow Leaguer Gloria Ward approached Seminole County’s Long Range Recreational Planning Committee, and joined it in much the same way Ms. Burkett became the League’s parks chair. “Committee Chairman Fred Ganas looked over at us and said, ‘What do you ladies want?’” Ms. Burkett said. “We told them, and they were delighted and invited us to join their committee.” The Seminole County Board of County Commissioners confirmed the Leaguers’ appointments.
The county had neither parks nor planning and zoning departments in 1968, so the League and the county’s recreational planning committee began looking for potential park sites. “We looked at aerials and plat books trying to find appropriate properties. We wanted water. We wanted to be near enough so people could get to it easily, but we also wanted to enough property to have sports, as well,” Ms. Burkett said. “It was a long, involved process.”
Ultimately, the League and county parks committee identified seven sites, totaling 2,122 acres, at an estimated cost of $1.68 million, and the League collected enough signatures to bring the plan to voters in November, 1970. Homeowners would pay about 55 cents for every $1,000 in property value, or $8.50 the first year on a typical home.
Tax increases were unusually unpopular in 1970. The League recognized the effort it would take to pass the referendum and it pushed hard. “We spoke to homeowners associations, Rotary and other civic clubs, any place that would listen to us,” Ms. Burkett said. Between Sept. 8 and Oct. 30, 1970, League members gave 27 presentations, not including editorial board meetings. “We went and spoke about how important it was to have these things for you and your children, for you and your grandchildren.”
The League organized an “I Want a Park” poster contest in which hundreds of elementary school student participated. League members ferried residents to the proposed park sites on “safaris”.
On Nov. 3, 1970 about 70 percent of the county’s voters said, “yes.” The county didn’t acquire all of the properties it initially planned to buy. Some proved either too expensive or otherwise unworkable. But, ultimately, the results included Sanlando, Red Bug Lake, Lake Sylvan and Lake Mills parks.
“Recording over 4 million visits annually, residents and visitors enjoy some of the County’s most beautiful preserved public lands and parks,” today’s Seminole County Leisure Services Director Richard Durr said. “Without the foresight to create and develop our parks system, Seminole County would be a very different place today. Indeed, ‘Florida’s Natural Choice’ is owed in part to these efforts.”