Innovation Statement

For those of you who missed my comments to the Orange County Board of County Commissioners late last night, I have posted them below.  After almost eight hours of consideration, the Board agreed to postpone a decision on the Innovation project located in the center of the County's innovation corridor until June 22nd.  It is not clear what discussions will be taking place between now and then but I can tell you that I have never witnessed a better presentation than what the owner of Innovation delivered last night.  Here's my statement and we will all need to follow the future of this project quite closely.

"Good evening, Mr. Mayor and Commissioners. Thank you for this opportunity to speak. My name is Jim Spaeth, I live in Avalon Park, and my address is 3307 Morelyn Crest Circle, Orlando, FL 32828. I am an owner in an office and retail complex on South Alafaya Trail, my wife is a former and probably future teacher in Orange County Schools, our son attends Avalon Elementary, and my parents and my in-laws make their home in Avalon Park. I have also spent countless volunteer hours over the past eight years working to realize the vision of a high-tech corridor in East Orlando, and I was one of two principal authors of the first East Orlando Visioning Study back in 2003. When it comes to betting on the future of this corridor, you might say that I am "all-in."

Today, you have the opportunity to take a huge step toward the vision which the Mayor so effectively captured in his Innovation Way concept, and which is crucial to the realization of a new economic ecosystem in Central Florida. I have listened carefully to those who suggest this is the wrong time to move forward - that the housing market is already overbuilt, that this project will not create enough jobs, and that this and similar projects threaten the health of the Econlockhatchee River. All of these concerns are worth discussing. But with all due respect, they miss the larger question. That is, in a highly competitive global marketplace for talented and creative people, can we afford not to move forward with projects such as the one before you today?

In the new economy emerging from this Great Recession, our economic future largely rests on our ability to attract talented, creative people from all over the world - the kinds of people who will create new, sustainable jobs for our area, and also enhance the jobs we have retained. There is a vast body of research that helps us understand how to do this. The research tells us that talented people are drawn to quality places where they can creatively interact with their peers, where education is treasured as the only sustainable competitive advantage, and where the infrastructure exists to rapidly move people, goods, and ideas. This is the challenge before you today - not to save your housing market by desperately clinging to the model of the past, hoping that what some economists have called a growth ponzi scheme can resume. It won’t, nor should it. Rather, the challenge you face is to prepare this community to compete globally for creative and talented people by creating the quality places of tomorrow.

Some may say – fine, we agree that we need such quality places, but don’t create them in an environmentally-sensitive area on the banks of what has been described as the dark and mysterious Econ River. Most planners would argue that creating any greenfield developments today should be undertaken only when other redevelopment and in-fill options in the community have been exhausted, especially when such a development is located in an environmentally sensitive area.

But, unfortunately, unless you plan to relocate your major metropolitan research university, your world-class research park, your newborn medical city, and your international airport (which will double as your high-speed rail hub), you really have no choice. As it is, 450,000 talented and creative people have already chosen to locate around these assets in the corridor from Winter Springs on the shores of Lake Jesup to Medical City on the shores of Lake Nona, powering a budding innovation economy in which one of every five jobs in the corridor is already related to education or technology. Clearly, this community's best opportunity to attract talented people is to place them within this creative corridor.

Thankfully, we have shown that careful planning can place man and nature in balance in the corridor. My own house in Avalon Park sits a mere 1700 feet from the Econ River, providing a vibrant array of wildlife in my neighborhood that enhances my family's daily life. We enjoy great walking trails, top-performing schools, walkable retail, and houses of worship, all in a beautiful natural setting.

So it can be done. In fact, our biggest challenge has been connecting the quality place where I live with other quality places in the corridor, as we are reliant on the badly-broken Alafaya Trail, a rural road that attempts to service an urban area, to move people, ideas, and goods through the corridor. Of course, you have the dual opportunity to begin solving that mobility challenge with the project before you today.

You have heard a variety of views today regarding the appropriateness of this project. Doing big things is hard. There are many competing interests that should and must be heard. But please, Mr. Mayor and Commissioners, don’t lose sight of the vision. We are blessed with incredible assets already in place that can power all of us into the future – UCF, the research park, the Medical City, and OIA. You have the right vision to move us into the new economy. The time is now to build a new economic ecosystem in Central Florida. A global competition for the creative and talented people that must be at the heart of our Innovation Way vision is well underway. I urge your support for this well-planned project. Thank you."

- Delivered to Orange County Board of County Commissioners on May 11th, 2009