ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — A group of residents in East Orange County are pushing to create a new city called Innovation.
The area that would be incorporated would include 165 square miles of land where 186,000 people live. The city would include all the land east of State Road 417 from the Seminole County line to the Osceola County line.
"As a city, we can take the existing tax base we have and apply that to what I believe are the three core elements of community which are public health, public safety and public education," said East Orange Community Development Chairman Jim Herborn.
Herborn says the city would have a budget of about $165 million. However, the city would not have its own police or fire departments.
"Part of our charter is not to have duplicity of government, so we would contract with Orange County Fire and contract with the Sheriff's Office.
But county leaders saying becoming a city is not easy.
"In the long run, I think what they are going to find is going to be far too expensive for them to endeavor to become a little city," said Orange County Commissioner Linda Stewart.
A state lawmaker must still sponsor a bill to put the idea of creating Innovation, Florida on the ballot. That could happen as early as November 2011.