Nehrling Gardens, a historic community space in Gotha, is asking Orange County to recognize it as an official arboretum — a designation that would clear the way for permits to rebuild its driveway and add parking, but one that has also stirred fears among next-door neighbors that the gardens could grow louder, busier, and less accountable to local rules.
The request traces back to a county review that found the site did not meet Orange County's landscape buffer yard requirement, according to Orange Observer News. Gardens board members disagreed with that recommendation and asked for a continuance to find a solution, and the request has since been continued more than once while the two sides negotiate. Nehrling Gardens officials went before the Orange County Board of Zoning Adjustment on Oct. 1 to ask for additional time, the outlet reported, and the board is now expected to take up resolutions on the matter at its Dec. 3 meeting.
At the center of the request is a push to formalize decades of informal use. Nehrling Gardens President Giordana Lyons said the request would formally recognize the gardens' long-running operations, and that the site has operated as an educational resource for 25 years while the gardens want to keep doing so going forward. Approval would let the gardens remodel its driveway, repair its historic buildings, improve emergency-vehicle access, add parking and host more education programs, the same report noted. The main building was originally built as a residence in 1910 and was never legally converted for non-residential use, a detail central to why the arboretum pathway is needed at all.
A Driveway Fix With Bigger Implications
Orange County held a community meeting with Nehrling Gardens officials to discuss neighbors' concerns, and both the HOA and gardens board members described previous meetings that failed to resolve residents' issues. Nehrling Gardens officials said there was a lack of communication between the two parties, while residents said no changes resulted from the earlier sessions. District 1 Commissioner Nicole Wilson suggested the parties meet privately to refine the proposal and account for the community, and Lyons said she is committed to doing so with the HOA.
The proposed construction would retain all existing buildings and landscape features, and the plan calls for an access loop that would let emergency vehicles, including fire trucks, reach the property quickly. The proposal also includes 24 parking spaces. Because the gardens predate the current zoning code, the site cannot provide a fully code-compliant buffer, even though its proximity to homes would typically require what's known as a type B buffer, according to Chief Planner Laekin O'Hara.
County Weighs a Buffer Compromise
Orange County is negotiating landscape buffers, particularly those bordering residential properties, and plans to increase the buffer to the fullest extent possible within the site's constraints. That includes removing drive aisles from the residential buffer area, installing a 6-foot-high masonry block wall to mitigate sound and lighting, and planting shrubs, understory trees and canopy trees as additional separation.
Gotha resident and Lake Nally Woods HOA President Paul Dehart said neighbors are seeking to preserve the home while garden officials seek to increase capacity, framing the dispute as a fundamental mismatch in goals. Per a separate account of the dispute, Dehart said the HOA wants preservation without turning the property into five classes a day, and he described the broader worry bluntly: “This is all designed around increasing capacity which increases noise. … They already have weddings there, which we don't allow.”
Bylaws, Events and an HOA Loophole
Part of the friction stems from a gap between county rules and the gardens' own bylaws. Orange County ordinances currently permit Nehrling Gardens to host four events annually, but the gardens' bylaws allow for up to 28 special events per year and provide for increased operating hours and educational tours. Lake Nally Woods HOA members are concerned about what events the gardens could hold if the arboretum proposal is approved, since within the HOA, Nehrling Gardens is currently recognized as a single-family home.
Dehart claimed Nehrling Gardens has not followed Lake Nally HOA rules and said he would argue for the HOA's bylaws to be considered as the county review proceeds. He also raised a more pointed concern: that arboretum recognition might mean Nehrling Gardens would no longer need to follow HOA bylaws at all, effectively sidestepping the neighborhood association's authority over the property. Dehart separately expressed concern that increased traffic would bring noise and disturbances to immediate neighbors.
Not all Gotha residents share that wariness. Some have said the gardens serve as one of the few community gathering spaces in Gotha, and one resident who leads a local Girl Scout troop said she has brought her scouts to Nehrling Gardens for education and nature programming for more than 15 years. The gardens, first cultivated by horticulturist Henry Nehrling, were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2000, underscoring the preservation stakes layered atop the zoning dispute.
What Happens Next
Any resolution still has to clear a multi-step county process. The Board of Zoning Adjustment makes a recommendation on the special exception, but the Board of County Commissioners must confirm that recommendation before it takes effect, according to the same report. Separately, Orange County's own variance criteria state that the Board of Zoning Adjustment must find that specific standards are met before approving a zoning variance, and that an application can be denied outright if an applicant fails to demonstrate compliance — with any approved variance limited to the minimum necessary for reasonable use of the land.
For now, the fight over a driveway and a buffer yard has become a proxy for a larger question about who gets a say in how a century-old homestead-turned-garden grows. The Board of Zoning Adjustment is set to revisit resolutions on the Nehrling Gardens request at its Dec. 3 meeting, with both sides saying they intend to keep talking before then.
