Eatonville’s town council on Thursday urged the Orange County School Board to delay a planned vote on selling the historic Hungerford property, signaling members disapproval of a landmark deal announced earlier in the week.
The school board is set to consider on Tuesday a $1 million down payment for the land — a 117-acre plot along Interstate 4 and a gateway to the town — from Dr. Phillips Charities as part of a deal largely coordinated by Eatonville Mayor Angie Gardner. The deal would have Dr. Phillips help develop the land with housing, educational facilities, medical facilities and parks but then donate some of the property to the town.
The district, Dr. Phillips Charities, and Gardner announced the proposed deal Tuesday.
Thursday evening, in a two-hour-long, standing-room-only special meeting at the Denton Johnson Community Center, town council members expressed frustration with Gardner for what they said was a lack of transparency. Council member Tarus Mack said he learned of the deal on social media.
Mack and Gardner went back and forth over the handling of the deal, with Mack critical of Gardner’s negotiating it behind closed doors.
“Shame on you for doing what you did,” he said.
Despite Eatonville signaling its opposition, the deal is on the agenda for the school board’s Tuesday meeting.
Gardner, who was on the losing end of a 4-to-1 vote asking for a delay, said she hopes the school board “sticks to its guns.”
“I’m okay with being the lone wolf right now. I will fight for the town, and I will do what’s right for the town, and this is what’s right and good for the town,” she said.
Some members, Mack included, would rather OCPS give the land to the town instead of selling it to Dr. Phillips or another third party. He said the town knows what it needs best, not Dr. Phillips Charities.
“We know exactly what we need. We need grocery stores. We need gas stations. We know what we want in this community,” he said.
But school attorneys have said the district cannot legally donate the land to Eatonville, a position others have questioned.
The Hungerford property is an important piece of history for a town founded by freed slaves. The site was once home to the Robert F. Hungerford Normal and Industrial School, a private boarding school for Black students when segregation-era white school districts would not educate them.
The school board purchased it seven decades ago — for under market value and under controversial circumstances — and ran it as a public school. The school was closed in 2009, and the buildings were demolished in 2020, leaving mostly vacant land surrounded by chain-link fencing.
The Hungerford site was recently considered for a state Black history museum and could be a key to the town’s revitalization efforts. In the last decade, the town worked to get the property sold by the district to private developers, which would put the land on town tax rolls. The school district is exempt from paying property taxes.
But contracts for the sale fell through and would-be buyers backed out.
The district’s most recent attempt to sell the property, which initially had town approval, prompted backlash from residents who feared the developer’s plans were too big and would lead to gentrification and displacement of long-time Eatonville residents.
The town council eventually voted to reject rezoning measures that would have made the development possible.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
