Many of the new developments in Lake County occur in cities or they are the result of municipal annexations of unincorporated “county” lands. The Board of County Commissioners cannot stop city governments from approving these types of annexations.. Oftentimes, city governments make these decisions based solely on whether they have sufficient utilities to serve this type of new development - rather than considering whether the land is designated as “Rural” or “Rural Protection Area” on the County’s Comprehensive Plan.

I have advocated for cities to refrain from annexing lands that are designated as “Rural” on the County’s Comprehensive Plan. I also sought legislation to prohibit cities from being authorized to annex such lands in an effort to preserve rural areas and rural lifestyles in Lake County. Ultimately, city voters and city officials hold the fate of the protection of rural lands in their hands.

Some of the projects that have been approved in the unincorporated area are locations where landowners already had rights established through the County Comprehensive Plan or because of the zoning on their land authorized particular densities.

For example, Wellness Way in South Lake County, and areas near the Wekiva/453 Interchange that are known as the Wolf Branch Innovation District have been in strategic economic development corridors for many years.

The Hillcrest PUD in Sorrento is comprised of unincorporated land that has a combination of Main Street land use designation, R-6 zoning that pre-dated the Wekiva Protection Area and was considered “vested rights”, and an old PUD that was approved around 20 years ago on a portion of this property. When the Wekiva Protection Act was approved, this particular area in and around Mt. Plymouth were specifically designated to have higher densities to offset the thousands of acres of land in Lake County placed in conservation from Mt. Plymouth east to the Wekiva River.

Lastly, the Whitaker property in Grand Island is an example of property that had been designated as Rural Village and Urban in the 1990s and continued to be considered a location where development would be allowed to occur (although the designations have been called different names through the years). The owner of the land sought approval of a PUD in 2026 to combine several tracts, utilize the original densities allowed on the site by blending them across the property, and constructing an internal transportation system and significant off-site infrastructure such as roundabouts on CR 452, sidewalks on Fish Camp and Apiary Roads, a traffic signal on CR 44 and enhancements to the intersection at CR 452 and CR 44. Although this land “looks” rural and has been used for farming, the farmers who own the land wer ready to retire and are now relying on the land rights they protected and relied on to be available at this point in their lives.

Within the unincorporated area, the Board of County Commissioners is bound to honor land use designations or zoning designations that already exist on property, thus a property with an "Urban" land use cannot be denied a request that is consistent with that land use; however, property with a "Rural" land use is not entitled to more density than already exists (e.g. 1 unit to 5 acre). Failure to honor or recognize existing land uses or zoning will subject Lake County and taxpayers to expensive lawsuits.

There are times when the facts support approval of a new land use, but as a general rule, I try to follow the land uses that area already in place. I have voted against several developments while serving on the County Commission (Sorrento Pines, Heritage Green, Drake's Point, Crescent Pines, etc.). Regarding the ones I have voted in favor of, I can provide the details which I believed required and warranted a favorable vote (Hillcrest in Sorrento, Mount Dora Groves, Mount Dora N & S, and Lake Yale).

The road congestion we are experiencing in Lake County is the result of a combination of factors: First, there is a prohibition in Florida law against denying new projects because of infrastructure deficiencies. Second, there is insufficient transportation funding in Florida for State roads and local roads that relieve State roads. Third, there was a population explosion after Covid which has not let up. And fourth, State laws that have taken away local government authority to deny high density housing projects. Altogether, places like Lake County are experiencing a perfect storm of huge amounts of “pass through” traffic combined with numerous residential developments built after Florida’s transportation “concurrency laws” were obliterated.

Lake County currently charges the highest transportation impact fees permitted by State law.

I advocate for less reliance by our State agencies on the use of herbicides to manage invasive species choking our waterways. I support greater focus on alternative strategies and I believe herbicide use should be carefully monitored and contractors applying such herbicides should be carefully scrutinized and managed. Each water body has its own unique characteristics, but in the past, the State has taken a "one size fits all" approach (which was likely due to budgetary restraints). Our lakes and water bodies are paying the price now due to organic build up and these nutrients are overloading the waterways making many water bodies in Florida and Lake County very sick. Which is why it is encouraging and exciting to see our State agencies embracing strategies to lower phosphorous and “save” and “bring back” our lakes, rivers, and waterbodies in Florida and Lake County through carefully calibrated Alum treatments.