ORLANDO, Fla. – The Orange County Planning and Zoning Commission on Thursday voted down a request for the complex that would house what would be the tallest roller coaster in the world.
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The board voted against Skyplex, which would be home to a 570-foot tower, complete with an observation deck on top of the 500-foot roller coaster dubbed "The Skyscraper." The complex is proposed to be built along International Drive and Sand Lake Road.
The proposal still needs to go before Orange County commissioners, who will have the final say whether the Skyplex attraction will be built. That vote is set for December.
The project is supposed to go up on an empty plot of land by 2018, but this snag could derail the coaster entirely.
"Skyplex is an unbelievable project that's going to do nothing but bring thousands of jobs and millions of people to I-Drive," developer Joshua Wallack said. "It's going to create heads and beds, revenue. It's going to create a legacy for I-Drive."
Standing in his new I-Drive nightclub, Wallack gets excited talking about the Skyplex. So when opponents helped vote it down, he came out fighting.
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"We just had a recession in this country three years ago where no one had a job, and they're stopping our project? Not happening. Not happening," Wallack said. "That's what a bully would do."
Wallack said that bully is his neighbor to the west -- Universal Orlando. The theme park told a zoning board a 570-foot Skyplex is too tall, but that's exactly why Wallack wants it -- to be the world's tallest -- and he has no plans to make it smaller.
"It has to be the world's tallest roller coaster," Wallack said.
Universal cannot build taller than 200 feet because it's in Orlando, but the Skyplex can because it's located in the county. Wallack thinks Universal fears competition, but he won't back down.
"Universal is trying to protect their turf, but we're going build up I-Drive, so that's just the way it's going to be," Wallack said.
Universal did not want to comment, but despite Thursday's hiccup, the developer thinks the project will get the green light when it goes before the county commission.
At Coney Island's Luna Park in Brooklyn, N.Y., a new $10 million steel Thunderbolt will sit on the site of the original wooden Thunderbolt that terrified thrill-seekers from the 1920s through the '80s. The coaster, expected to open in May, is seen here in a rendering.