Update: The meeting was held and I will post an overview and a full meeting video soon. VJ
Far Reach Ranch was sold recently at the west end of Lake Dora, and is planned to become a 2500 home community plus commercial areas.
The attorney rep for the developer sent out an invitation to the initial meeting to be held tonight, June 5, 2025 at the Tavares Civic Center.
This is very early in the development process, and seems intended to give nearby "concerned" residents a chance to see potential plans, plus for the developers to learn about concerns such as:
- Plans for the development to have an entrance on Shirley Shores road which goes from HWY 448 to Deer Island, and is only one lane each way. Local residents in Squirrel Point and Shirley Shores areas and Deer Island don't want new traffic caused by 2500 homes. The existing entrance on HWY 561 would greatly increase gridlock there, and should also be restricted.
- Traffic gridlock already exists on HWY 448, as well as HWY 561 and HWY 19, so waits of up to an hour to get through those areas during commuting time will be extended.
- School capacity is already over committed ( I was told by an inside source), and school impact fees are not enought to provide the student seats needed to meet growth. So someone has to pay for new classrooms to deal with the students from the development. Increased School Impact fees are needed, but developers fight such plans, not caring about whether space for new students will be in place before new homes are occupied.
- Will current Tavares residents be required to pay higher taxes to subsidize infrastructure for the Far Reach Ranch development? A firm known as Urban3 does studies on whether new developments, even with funding required before development, do not break even on new infrastructure costs, thus nearby existing residents (of Tavares) will be taxed more to subsidize the provided infrastructure. Visit the website UrbanThree.com to see their charts and studies. Lake County AND Tavares should fund such UrbanThree.com studies before approving any more development, and increase developer impact fees to at least break even plus 10% on infrastructure costs to prevent existing residents having to subsidize the new development.
- Why County Board members have no jurisdiction to limit this growth.
- About 10 years ago, the Tavares City Council approved a special zoning just for Far Reach Ranch, that basically lets the developer do anything. This needs a full investigation whether it was legal. For instance I was told he decision meeting wasn't noticed, but I have not confirmed that.
- When developments are proposed, they have to do several studies including a traffic capacity study, to show if traffic loads are too high to allow new homes and "car trips" on existing roads. The City of Tavares should mandate THEY, and not the developer. selects the traffic engineer to do the study, and require the developer reimburse them for costs. That is so the study is objective and unbiased, vs common perception that when developers hire the traffic engineers, they search for the firm which will give them the most favorable results (i.e. traffic is not excessive when we all know it is gridlocked).
- The County and Tavares need a plan to ensure the developer actually meets requirements such as gopher tortoise relocations, etc. In an earlier development on Shirley Shores Road, the developer just graded dirt and filled in water areas and ignored the rules. The City of Tavares did nothing to sanction them.
- Why aren't the four Florida legislators for Lake County doing anything to change the laws to prevent developments until road and school capacity are in place to handle the increased population?
Although the County Board has no jurisdiction over the development, they just launched a four meeting growth management series of meetings. You can find the video for the first meeting and schedules for the other ones at: https://www.lakecountyfl.gov/growth?
To follow this Far Reach Ranch development proposal, you need to get active, or traffic gridlock and school capacity will be unacceptable in the future. We will post updates here on FiscalRangers.com (also see the wordcloud index on the main page and find "Far Reach Ranch" to see all posts on this issue. This is the first post.
Also, follow Nicole Rushing-Boyd on Facebook and read her Facebook group North Lake County-Growth at:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1326310411195707/
Vance
Join our mailing list by emailing [email protected] and ask to be on the FR email list.
===
