Update: UCF Spokesman Grant Heston said the construction relates to “the natural-gas energy facility UCF is building to save energy costs and reduce environmental impacts.”
Days after the Orlando Sentinel released a major investigative report on UCF’s controversial plans to eventually bulldoze the arboretum, KnightNews.com has noticed constructions crews at work right next to the treasured green space.
It’s not yet clear how, if at all, this construction relates to the arboretum, regarded by many as the Central Park of UCF. However, its proximity to the once lush ecosystem which fell into disrepair after UCF’s alleged mismanagement, could cause concern among the arboretum’s supporters.
KnightNews.com is working to find out more from UCF officials on this construction, and also to see what the status of the arboretum is. The Sentinel reported that the St. John’s River Water Management District approved UCF’s request to remove protected status of the land, in exchange for another piece of land that is already too environmentally sensitive to build on. 
State officials — possibly Gov. Rick Scott himself — may have to approve the release of the arboretum’s protected status. That’s because Gov. Jeb Bush issued an order that it be protected. Read more of the Sentinel’s investigation here, which ran on the paper’s front page.
