Seminole County Commission Chairman Lee Constantine remembers when he first heard the pitch: It was in early 2018 at an Altamonte Springs restaurant, where developer Chris Dorworth laid out plans for River Cross, his vision to transform a portion of the county’s rural area.
“He said this was his dream,” Constantine recalled.
After nearly four years of fighting in the commission chambers and the courts, Dorworth is not about to give up on the controversial development, even after personally committing nearly $1 million to the project and being rejected by a county advisory board, the county commission and most recently a federal judge.
This month, the lobbyist and former state legislator from Lake Mary filed a notice that he plans to appeal U.S. District Judge Anne Conway’s sharply worded ruling in June throwing out his lawsuit against Seminole over his plans for the massive development just east of the Econlockhatchee River.
Dorworth is also still pursuing a separate lawsuit against Seminole in circuit court, arguing the charter amendment establishing its rural boundary — which strictly limits construction — is “unconstitutionally vague” and that Seminole can “arbitrarily and capriciously” approve or deny projects in the protected area.
“I will be actively involved in future attempts to amend the [county] charter [establishing the rural boundary] with legal challenges as the county commission has proven to be an untrustworthy steward of the power they were unconstitutionally given,” Dorworth said in an email to the Orlando Sentinel. “I look forward to permanently righting that wrong.”
Dorworth, would not answer questions about how much he has invested in the River Cross project or the contract he has to purchase the 669-acre property on which it would be built from its longtime owners, the Clayton family.
But court transcripts, emails and public documents obtained by the Sentinel provide insight into how Dorworth became interested in the property, known as High Oaks Ranch, how much he has spent and how far he is willing to fight to get the development approved.
Dorworth approached the Claytons — who have owned the pastureland just north of the Orange County line since at least the 1980s — in 2017, signing a letter of intent that November to purchase the property for $35.3 million, putting down a $300,000 deposit.
Three months later, Dorworth signed a contract to purchase the property from the Claytons. The transaction was contingent on Dorworth getting approval from Seminole County to rezone the agricultural land to allow for a planned development.
The amounts of additional deposits Dorworth had to pay were redacted from a copy of the contract obtained by the Sentinel. But according to deposition transcripts, Dorworth agreed to put up an additional four nonrefundable deposits of $45,000 each and then four nonrefundable deposits of $75,000 each, totaling $480,000, to extend several deadlines to purchase the property. In all, Dorworth is likely to spend $780,000 on deposits alone.
Dorworth said he has no other investors.
“Just me,” he said in an email. “I have no investors or lenders. Never have.”
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‘The great remaining piece of land’
The rural boundary — which covers about one-third of Seminole mostly east of the Econlockhatchee River, Lake Jesup and Oviedo — was established in the county’s charter in 2004 by Seminole voters, who were concerned with fast-paced growth in nearby cities and east Orange County.
Since then, only two properties — each about four acres — have been removed from the rural area and annexed into Winter Springs, according to county officials. One was part of a lawsuit settlement with the city, and the other was to build a tot lot and a retention pond.
Approving a project of River Cross’s scale would have been unprecedented. In Dorworth’s telling, it was a prize worth the risk.
“It’s always sort of been the great remaining piece of land in Seminole County,” Dorworth said in an October 2019 court deposition. “I don’t get [the deposit money] back if I choose not to do the deal. I knew that going into it.”
On April 6, 2018, Dorworth and his company River Cross Land Co. LLC filed a pre-application with Seminole requesting to carve the 669 acres out of the rural boundary — where development densities are limited to one home per either five or 10 acres — and build a development of 600 single-family homes, 270 townhomes, 500 apartment units and 1.5 million square feet of commercial and professional space.
Almost immediately, hundreds of residents joined conservationists from throughout Central Florida to protest River Cross, saying the development would open the doors to urban sprawl in Seminole’s protected rural area, where roads, government services and utility infrastructure are limited.
Seminole commissioners unanimously turned down Dorworth’s River Cross plans at an August 2018 meeting after hours of public comment from scores of residents. Dorworth filed a federal lawsuit under the Fair Housing Act two months later, launching a still-ongoing legal battle.
But court documents and public records show that even before Dorworth filed his application for River Cross in Spring 2018, he was actively hunting for other avenues to develop the property.
“Since the county was anticipated to not be reasonable and not cooperative, then it was envisioned that there would need to be some other means explored to get the [land use] changed so that he could develop it and justify buying the property,” Ken Clayton said in his November 2019 deposition. Clayton’s late father, Malcolm Clayton, purchased the High Oaks Ranch property with his cousin the late Charlie Clayton in the 1980s.
Clayton said Dorworth even then was considering “a way to have a higher governmental agency, you know, become involved.”
‘The will of the people’
In early 2018, Dorworth lobbied for passage of a bill in the Florida Legislature that would have done away with rural protections on land within three miles of a state university, according to a court deposition.
Bill supporters called it an effort to provide nearby housing for university students and staff. But opponents said it would have opened a large chunk of Seminole’s rural boundary — including the River Cross property, due to its proximity to the University of Central Florida — to thousands of new rooftops.
“It was something that I was interested in,” Dorworth said about the bill, according to the deposition.
Dorworth’s close friend state Sen. Jason Brodeur, then a state representative, initially voted in favor of the legislation, saying that “Florida’s universities are economic development drivers, so I believe there is real value to directing adequate and proper planning around the universities.”
After the vote was finalized and the bill had passed, Brodeur changed his vote to ‘no’ in a symbolic gesture on the House floor. The bill eventually died in the Senate.
Dorworth also acknowledged in depositions that he discussed the River Cross project with then-Supervisor of Elections Mike Ertel and then-Tax Collector Joel Greenberg in 2018.
In October 2018, Greenberg — who now awaits sentencing after pleading guilty to six federal charges, including sex trafficking and bribing a public official — sent a letter to county commissioners blasting them for agreeing to fight Dorworth’s federal lawsuit.
Dorworth in the deposition denied helping Greenberg write the letter, but according to the electronic letter’s digital editing history, Dorworth had a hand in crafting it.
Ertel, a longtime friend of Dorworth, also sent a letter to commissioners at that same time, warning them of the costs of fighting the federal lawsuit.
Dorworth also acknowledged in depositions that he spoke to Chris Anderson, who had recently been appointed Seminole’s elections chief, about River Cross in late 2018.
“He just called me and asked me some questions about it one time,” Dorworth said in his testimony. “Just tried to figure out what was going on.”
However, Anderson said Thursday it was Dorworth who contacted him, inquiring about putting a charter amendment on the ballot that, if approved by voters, would’ve allowed neighboring cities, such as Oviedo and Winter Springs, to remove property from the rural boundary and approve development without the county’s required approval.
David Bear, president of the nonprofit Save Rural Seminole, said he is not surprised by how much money and resources Dorworth is spending to develop River Cross.
“If he succeeded, his development would net him millions [of dollars],” Bear said. “… It would result in developers having carte blanche to develop the rest of the land in the rural boundary. … But even a greater win, is that he would be able to move forward with additional projects in the rural area.”
Constantine defended the county’s ongoing resistance to Dorworth’s dream project.
“If this was lost then essentially the whole rural boundary is lost,” Constantine said. “The county is fighting for the will of the people. The people of Seminole County voted overwhelmingly to protect that area and reduce densities. And it’s our responsibility as servants of the people to do that.”
Staff writer Jason Garcia contributed.
mcomas@orlandosentinel.com
