A rural East Orange County cattle ranch that has spent a decade fighting off — and fighting for — suburban development just scored a major legal win. An Orange County circuit judge has ruled that county commissioners improperly imposed restrictive limits on Sustanee, the proposed 1,800-home subdivision planned for 1,317 acres near the Econlockhatchee River, reopening the door to significantly denser housing than the county wanted to allow.
The ruling, issued by Judge Brian Sandor, found that Orange County's 2025 decision to strip Sustanee from the Lake Pickett Study Area and cap the property at one home per 10 acres — reducing the maximum allowed homes to just 131 — amounted to a more restrictive and burdensome regulation barred under Senate Bill 180, the state's 2025 post-disaster relief law, according to the Orlando Sentinel. The judge's order restored the Sustanee principals' right to pursue higher-density development on the land, effectively undoing the county's attempt to rein in the project.
Sustanee attorney S. Brent Spain said in an email, per the Sentinel, that his clients were “very pleased” by the court's ruling. Spain had previously warned Orange County commissioners in 2025 that his clients would likely sue if the county moved forward with restricting the property, and that threat has now materialized into a courtroom victory.
A Ranch That Has Fought This Battle Under Three Names
Sustanee is the latest name for a project that has cycled through several identities — Sustany, Lake Pickett North, and now Sustanee — as its developers have repeatedly sought approval to build higher-density housing on hundreds of acres of cattle ranchland in rural East Orange County. The principals behind the project include Rolling R Ranch and Mary Rybolt Lamar, the Sentinel reports.
The fight traces back at least to November 2016, when the citizen group Save Orange County successfully campaigned against an earlier version of the project, then known as Sustany, leading commissioners to reject it, according to 1000 Friends of Florida. County commissioners rejected the project again in January 2024, voting 4-3 against a comprehensive plan amendment that would have allowed up to 1,789 single-family homes and 90,000 square feet of community space, as reported by WKMG News 6. More than 115 residents registered to speak at that marathon hearing to oppose sprawl east of the Econlockhatchee River.
Community opposition has centered on traffic, environmental impacts and suburban growth pressing into the rural tier, the Sentinel notes. Traffic analyses presented during the 2024 hearings estimated that completing the Lake Pickett area developments, including Sustanee, would add roughly 40,000 vehicle trips per day onto surrounding rural roads, according to WKMG. Seminole County commissioners also formally asked Orange County in January 2024 to reject or tightly restrict the project over concerns about downstream stormwater runoff and flooding in Chuluota and the Black Hammock area, per Oviedo Community News.
The Agricultural Enclave Detour
Separate from the court case, Sustanee's developers had also petitioned Orange County to certify the property as an agricultural enclave under Senate Bill 686 — a 2026 update to state law that allows expedited certification of rural pockets bordered on at least half their perimeter by existing development, capped at 1,280 acres. County planner Alberto Vargas found, per a planning report, that the proposed enclave exceeded that statutory maximum and that trimming parts of parcels containing utility easements was not permitted under the law. Sustanee attorney Greg D. Lee challenged that finding, arguing in a written response that Florida statutes do not require an entire tax parcel to be counted toward total acreage, and insisted the refigured property should still qualify.
Applicants had trimmed the enclave request down to 1,258 acres by eliminating portions of parcels with utility easements, according to the Sentinel. Orange County commissioners were expected to hear that agricultural enclave petition Tuesday, but a letter from the law firm Baker & Hostetler withdrew the request while reserving the applicant's right to submit a new or modified application later. Under the county's Lake Pickett Study Area rules, Sustanee principals had also been positioned to seek development topping 2,600 homes at one point, per the Sentinel's reporting.
Statewide Preemption Fight Looms Over Local Control
The court's ruling lands amid a broader statewide clash over how much authority Florida cities and counties retain over land use. SB 180 preempts local governments named in federal disaster declarations from adopting more restrictive land development regulations or comprehensive plan amendments retroactive to August 1, 2024, through October 1, 2027, according to a legal analysis from Bilzin Sumberg. At least 25 Florida municipalities and counties, including Orange County, have sued over the law, arguing the freeze on local land-use authority amounts to an unconstitutional unfunded mandate, per Holland & Knight.
Lawmakers tried and failed to narrow the preemption this year. State Senator Nick DiCeglie introduced Senate Bill 840 during the 2026 legislative session to scale back SB 180's reach, and it passed the Senate unanimously, 38-0, but died after the Florida House declined to take it up, according to 1000 Friends of Florida. That leaves SB 180's preemption fully in force through 2027, giving developers like Sustanee's principals continued legal leverage against local growth controls.
Orange County voters had previously tried to head off exactly this kind of dispute by passing a Rural Boundary Charter Amendment requiring supermajority commission approval to extend urban development into designated rural zones. Sustanee's development entity, Lake Pickett North LLC, challenged that voter-approved measure in court, but Florida's Sixth District Court of Appeal upheld it in March 2025, according to the Orlando Sentinel's earlier reporting. Orange County's comprehensive plan also restricts new road, rail or utility crossings over the Econlockhatchee River — an Outstanding Florida Waterway — unless a developer proves no prudent alternative exists, a rule that has long complicated efforts to extend urban infrastructure to the Sustanee site.
Community Advocates Say Concerns Remain Unaddressed
Kelly Martinez Semrad, who formerly led Save Orange County, said the developers still had not addressed community issues, per the Sentinel. Semrad has described Sustanee as urban sprawl and an “environmental catastrophe,” reflecting the group's long-standing opposition to Sustanee and other urban-style development east of the Econ River. That opposition has now persisted across three project names and multiple commission votes, even as the legal ground has shifted decisively toward the developers this year.
What happens next for Sustanee remains unsettled. The agricultural enclave request has been withdrawn, but Baker & Hostetler's letter left the door open to a revised application later, and Judge Sandor's ruling has already reset the density ceiling the county had tried to impose. For residents along Chuluota Road and Tanner Road who have opposed the project since it was still called Sustany, the fight over how much of the ranch becomes rooftops appears far from over.
