Fiscal Rangers

Far Reach Ranch 2500 home development has first public meeting

A huge new 2500 home "Far Reach Ranch" residential and commercial development is planned in Tavares, FL and this is the first of several posts on the development proposal and approvals by the City of Tavares, FL. Residents are concerned about many issues, including traffic gridlock, school class capacity, raised taxes for existing Tavares homeowners to subsidize needed infrastructure, etc. Read more →

Leesburg Council Meeting on Growth Limiting Resolution - Citizens Denied Support for Annexation Moratorium

After a contentious Leesburg, FL City Commissioner meeting last night (Apr. 14, 2025), four of five commissioners voted against perhaps 300 citizens there to support a resolution to limit residential annexations for 1+ years. Read more →

Tavares, FL holds update for Tavares Planning & Zoning Comm - Apr. 18, 2024

This Apr. 18, 2024, 65-minute meeting video was not a regular Tavares, FL P&Z meeting, but an apparent annual update for the P&Z Committee on Tavares commercial and residential developments, a good overview of the Planning profession history, and an overview of the Florida Live Local Act. They also provided large maps (see attachments) of pending residential and commercial developments and discussed them.  Read more →

City of Leesburg, FL loses special magistrate hearing over residential development

The City of Leesburg, FL Commissioners lost a special magistrate's hearing regarding a developer litigation over Sunnyside Lake Landholding and planned construction of a 159-residence subdivision. Reading this article may give members an insight into how bad it can get when elected officials actually stand up to a developer proposal. Notice one of the contentious issues is the effect of the proposed development on local traffic where the traffic study said in my opinion "no problem here..." but City Commissioners believed the opposite. "Mayor Jimmy Burry also felt the roads were not adequate despite the traffic studies presented by the developer...". Residents need to hold Florida House & Senate members accountable until reform legislation is passed. Legislation is needed to require that affected cities or counties hire the Traffic Impact Study (TIS) engineers, not the developers. Here is a link to the Leesburg-news.com article. https://www.leesburg-news.com/2024/03/30/leesburg-commissioners-sidestep-costly-lawsuit-over-disputed-development/? And here is a link to the Sunnyside traffic impact study (TIS). Become familiar with them because in my opinion, they are biased toward the developers because the DEVELOPER, not the city, hires them for an "objective" study. Note: This TIS was published in Oct. 2019 or five years ago. A more current one may... Read more →

Leesburg, FL Residents: Two upcoming meetings you need to know about

Two Leesburg, FL City Council meetings are coming up (Dec. 30, 2021 & Jan. 3, 2022) without any details on their purpose. Both may include discussions relatedd to rampant development annexations by the City Council of Leesburg without regard to traffic gridlock that may result. As of Dec. 27, 2021, there is no online agenda for the Jan. 3rd meeting, and the Dec. 30 agenda only says each side will give presentations. Read more →