An investment arm of the Mormon church applied today to annex 52,450 acres of ranchland to the city of Orlando, Florida, a massive addition that would increase the physical size of the city by nearly 60 percent.

The land-owning entity, known as Farmland Reserve, says it has no immediate plans to develop the land, which will be annexed as the “East Orlando Deseret Ranch Planning Area.”

“Planners for the city and Farmland Reserve will work together to envision a framework for smart growth in future decades, but until that growth happens the land will remain in agriculture,” according to a press release this morning from Farmland Reserve.

As the Orlando Sentinel previously reported, maneuvering toward bringing the acreage into Orlando began in recent weeks to get ahead of limitations the voters may impose in November, when a measure giving Orange County new power to block annexations is on the ballot.

The long-term plan of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints calls for a half-million people on its total of 300,000 acres across Osceola, Orange and Brevard County by 2080.

That’s about the population of Seminole County, inhabiting what are now mostly undeveloped lands used primarily for cattle, sod and citrus farming.

The Orlando annexation would significantly alter the city’s map, extending its recent eastward march nearly to the St. John’s River and the Brevard County line. As of 2022, Orlando’s jurisdiction included about 76,000 acres, and annexations since then have pushed it to at least 90,000 acres.

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