MOUNT DORA, Fla. — Lake County Commissioners are considering a development proposal in Mount Dora, but not without opposition from residents.
The plan would involve building more than 250 new homes as part of the Heritage Green subdivision.
The item was on Tuesday’s Lake County Commission agenda, but the developer contacted staff in the morning, requesting to postpone the discussion.
A representative for the developer told commissioners that they wanted to have more time to review a report focusing on water management in the area.
In a 3-2 vote, Lake County commissioners voted to table the discussion.
District 1 Commissioner Anthony Sabatini and District 4 Commissioner and Chair Leslie Campione voted against the motion. Sabatini said he thinks the developer should be time limited, and that the project goes against the county’s rural values.
“There’s a reason why people came to Lake County. It’s because they don’t want to be in Orlando. They don’t want to be in Tampa. They want to be in real Florida,” Sabatini said. “This is real Florida. And I think it’s important that we make sure our projects fit and conform to the character of Lake County,”
Commissioners still allowed residents to speak during the meeting, and most expressing their strong opposition to the Heritage Green project.
The proposed development would bring 265 homes on about 217 acres of land north of Wolf Branch Road and east of Scenic Hills Drive.
Among those opposed to the development was Michelle Wooten, whose home backs up to the proposed site.
She worries about population density in the area.
“It’s too many cars, way too many cars,” Wooten said. “As we said, it was over 200 homes. We established that each household has more than two cars. So, you go into 2.5 cars for each household. That’s a lot of traffic behind my house.”
Residents also voiced concerns about flooding.
Danny Mack has lived in the Wolfbranch Estates subdivision in Sorrento for 31 years. He said they’ve never had flooding problems in the past until last year’s hurricanes.
“When Milton came by, it really let everyone know the flooding situation we have from the runoff, the storm runoff from Timberwalk subdivision. It comes down like a river,” he said.
He worries that if the Heritage Green development is allowed to move forward, it could make things worse.
“We could not get out of our subdivision if we didn’t have an emergency exit in the back,” Mack said. “If Heritage Green is allowed to go through ... we will be trapped.”
Campione said public notices will be sent out to residents with the date of the next hearing when the development will be discussed.
District 3 Commissioner Kirby Smith suggested the developer should do more community meetings involving residents.
A date for when this item will be back for a discussion was not set.
