Lake County Commissioners pave way for major housing development

LAKE COUNTY -- 

It could be a sign that the housing market is changing.

A developer was seeking approval Tuesday to build more than 1,600 homes on 1,000 acres in Lake County.

Hearthstone Communities are still working on the master site plan that would include more than 500,000-square-feet of commercial and institutional space in the development that would be known as Avalon Groves.

On an otherwise lonely stretch of U.S. 27 between Four Corners and Clermont is Sawgrass Bay Boulevard.

It’s the entryway to one of several of South Lake County’s sparsely populated developments where supply has greatly outnumbered demand since the recession began.

One of the biggest problems for development in the area is ease of transportation.

Sawgrass Bay Boulevard dead ends into the Avalon Groves property, meaning there’s no easy way to travel toward Orlando or the attractions.

It’s one of the reasons Sawgrass resident TC Williams is already looking to sell on a street where homes are still being built.
 
“You’ve only got two ways to get back to the inner city,” Williams said. “There’s (U.S.) 192 or all the way back up to SR 50.”

The developer Hearthstone Communities wants to extend Sawgrass Bay east to Avalon Road and the nearby State Road 429 connection.

They see it as the pathway to potential buyers.

“We have a major employment center right to our east, which is Walt Disney World," Hearthstone's Chuck Piper said. “We also have people coming to Florida that purchase properties and rent them out on short-term rental process.”

Piper said the mixed-use concept plan will be the key to the project's success.

“They work together. You need rooftops to bring commercial retail users to a market. You also need commercial retail to bring people that want to live in a community,” Piper said.

Commissioners who voted to rezone the area from its current campground designation expressed reservations as did neighbors.

“We’re not going to get 500 homes into the development, and you come back and say ‘we want to postpone the commercial or industrial components of this project.’ Are we?” Commissioner Jimmy Conner asked developers.

“It’s a travesty," Lake County resident Nancy Fullerton told commissioners. "I just hope you go and drive it to see the groves the pasture, to see what should be a rural protection area.”

In the end, county leaders said the development fits the long term plan for 16,000 acres it wants to develop outside Walt Disney World.

The major obstacle has always been funding for roads. They just hope now the developer will pay its fair share and they can convince the state to pitch in as well.

Hearthstone executives admit we are still in a tough economic climate to build homes, but think things will turn around by 2015, when they expect the first phase of homes to be complete.

The master site plan, which would include the breakdown of who pays what for the roads, still needs county approval.