Developer seeks to build project in Lake Avalon Rural Settlement

Toll Brothers is proposing a development of 39 single-family dwelling units in the Lake Avalon Settlement in Horizon West, but residents adamantly expressed disapproval during a community meeting Thursday, July 30. 

The development is proposed to be constructed at 5477 Avalon Road, located east of Avalon Road, west of Daniel Webster Western Beltway, south of Malcolm Road and north of McKinney Road. 

The proposal includes amending the Future Land Use Map designation of the area from Rural Settlement 1/5, which allows one dwelling unit per five acres, to Rural Settlement 1/1, which is one dwelling unit per acre.

Under the Rural Settlement 1/1, the development will be able to have 39 units. 

Toll Brothers also is seeking to rezone the property from Citrus Rural District to Planned Development.

The 39 homes are clustered to look like a residential subdivision with a 5-acre pond in the center; the remaining acreage would be used as preservation space. The lots would be 100 feet wide with depths of a little more than 200 feet. 

Logan Opsahl, a land-use attorney at Lowndes Law Firm, the firm representing Toll Brothers, said the Toll Brothers considers the development a transition zone from higher density to lower density. 

Residents questioned why Toll Brothers couldn’t develop a proposal consistent with the one dwelling unit per five acre designation to follow the rules of the settlement. 

Opsahl said the proposal is to allow for more houses. 

“The idea of providing some kind of transitional area is not a real thing in our current underlying land use,” District 1 County Commissioner Nicole Wilson said. “When you feel some … frustration by individuals in this room, it’s not because they don’t want people there. It’s because they want everyone to play by the same rules. They want to make sure when we put things into our comprehensive plan and into our code, they mean something.”

Although the proposed plan calls for clustering the homes, Wilson said clustering is not allowed in rural settlements. 

When asked how utilities would be supplied to the development, Opsahl said the intent was to use potable water and sewer. 

Scott Cirino, the county planner for the project, said Toll Brothers has not yet submitted its pre-development inquiry, which is an early application for local utility authorities to check infrastructure capacity before filing formal plans. 

As a result, he said the applicant may not be able to use potable water and sewer as there are policies limiting utility expansion within the rural settlement.

More than 50 residents attended the community meeting, with a majority opposing the proposal.

Mike Walsh, a resident of the settlement, said the proposal is a slippery slope. 

“We’re not only representing our rural settlement, so what happens here is going to affect all of these settlements,” he said. “It’s difficult for us to have sympathy when if you look at what the price of this land has gone to in the last 10 to 15 years, where we would have paid each $10,000 an acre, it’s now sitting at $100,000. It’s not as if you’re not going to be making money by sitting in the same type of area we currently are pushing to maintain.”

Heather Thompson, a resident of the West Windermere Rural Settlement, said as construction occurs, challenges with construction, setbacks, utilities and more can result in changes in density. 

“The plan you see here might not be the product you end up with at the end,” she said. “I’m just here to stand with my neighbors and to say also that the rural settlements of our county, and our district especially, are the linchpin of our livelihood. This isn’t just about preserving a way of life or density. This is restoring our aquifer through water retention. We’re controlling flooding. We’re teaching land stewardship. We’re connecting to our food sources. We’re providing an opportunity right next door to connect with nature.”

Laurie Forrester, president of the Lake Avalon Rural Settlement and Avalon Home and Property Owner Association, said she doesn’t understand how the proposal “was even a glimmer in anyone’s eyes” knowing the zoning and limitations of the area. 

“Once you let the genie out of the bottle, you cannot get them back in,” Forrester said. “We do not want you to be the genie. We don’t want you out of the bottle. Enough is enough. This should not have even been a glimmer.”

The proposal will tentatively go before the Local Planning Agency and Planning and Zoning Commission for a public hearing at 9 a.m. Thursday, Aug. 20, at the County Administration Building.