HomeMy WebLinkAboutCity Comparisons-1994 f
ri a!,
3 x :, „ ,ti; a Quite a different picture.
J.r rk —t,Y . ,
r Seminole cities range greatly
in geographic size, with little
Don Boyett correlation to population or valu-
ations.And area dictates to some
extent how well a city can pro-
OUR COUNTY vide services to its people. It's
'cheaper to serve a compact pop-
City comparisons ulation than one that's spread
out.
prove Interesting Sanford is king of area (17.5
square miles). Oviedo is second
flouring the rich and
M poor of cities: There are
(19.1), and Winter Springs (13.6)
is third. Then comes Lake Mary
several ways to measure (9.5), followed by Altamonte
a city's wealth, but for City Hall (9.4), Casselberry(7.1)and Long-
people, the only thing that wood(5.5).
counts is valuations on the tax Being first in total valuations
roll. Though property taxes gen- and only fifth in area,Altamonte
erally pay less than half of a - was a cinch to lead in valuations
city's bills, they are the major per square mile ($154.7 million).
source of income and reflect Next comes Longwood ($99 mil-
what a city can do. lion),Casselberry($78.9 million),
So how do Seminole cities Lake Mary ($52 million), Winter
stack up against each other and Springs ($49 million), Sanford
against nearby out-of-county ($42 million) and Oviedo ($35
cities? million).
Thanks to Dale Christensen, a No Seminole city comes close,
L member of the Casselberry Plan- ,either by population or area, to
ning and Zoning Commission, t vo relatively small nearby
N.we have two measurements — cities. Maitland ($88,728 per ca-
". against population and against pita, $168 million per square
,t geographic size. A curious per- mile) and Winter Park ($69,591
.- Son, Christensen asked the city per capita, $204 million per
' planning department for the in- square mile) out-distance all
formation and someone there ac- Central Florida cities.
i; Wally did the computation. A number of factors are re-
1 You guessed right, Altamonte flected in those standings. San-
Springs, by a very wide margin, ford has a lot of land, little com-
( Is king among Seminole cities in mercial property, lots of govern-
■ total valuations — $1.95 billion. ment (tax-free) property and
•_Sanford is second ($734 million), many homes that pay no taxes at
followed in order by Winter I'.all. It is commercial property
pSprings, Casselberry, Longwood, (Maitland Center,etc.)that gives
Lake Mary and Oviedo. =Maitland(population 9,000) such
Totals, though, are meaning- a high ranking.
s,less when they are spread across ✓ of ✓
4 a city's area or the number of
people it serves.
Look at the rankings based on .9170 e),3-
population: Lake Mary is _/
wealthiest, by a whopping mar-
gin ($74,564 per capita). Long-
wood is second ($40,618), then,
in order, come Altamonte
($39,547), Oviedo ($31,457), Win-
ter Springs ($27,727), Cassel-
berry ($24,577), and Sanford
($21.5321.