- January 21, 2026
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Former county commissioner Scott Boyd’s McKinnon Corp. shared plans during a community meeting Wednesday, Jan. 14, for the rezoning of properties on Marsh Road and Williams Road to build the next “Oakland Park.”
The rezoning request is for 17729 Marsh Road as well as 1400, 1401 and 1756 Williams Road. The property currently is not zoned and has an Urban Village designation.
The Johns Lake Urban Village Planned Unit Development is a proposed community planned for 613 homes on more than 319 acres in Winter Garden near the Lake-Orange county line.
Kelly Carson, planning director for the city of Winter Garden, said city staff nor the Winter Garden City Commission have made any decisions regarding the proposal. She emphasized the community meeting was an opportunity to share information on the proposal and receive feedback.
The McKinnon family has owned the Johns Lake property for more than 100 years, and Boyd said the family wanted to do something special with it.
“Oakland Park is a pretty special project, and that is the benchmark project that the family has asked us to work from and inform what we’re doing on the master planning and the development for the Johns Lake property,” said Geoff McNeill, a consultant on the project. “It’s a major part of the way we look at the property, how we think about it differently than a normal, mass-production-building type of housing project. It’s going to be a very high-end, highly detailed, very character-driven project.”
Preliminary plans for the Johns Lake development show a community including a mix of single-family homes as well as two special districts: one for a potential public school and another for a 31.6-acre resort district.
The overall gross density for the community is planned to be at 1.85 units per acre. The plans include townhomes to lakefront estates that will be restricted to a 90-foot minimum street frontage. Homes have not been designed yet, but they will be semi-custom and custom builds.
About 40% of the lakefront is some form of open space.
Besides homes, the plan includes a trail network, but it does not include a boat ramp.
The 31.6-acre special district includes a wedding venue, a restaurant by reservation only and a bed and breakfast with a maximum of 40 beds designed to be in the woods as a special place for guests and residents to stay by reservation only.
“The idea behind the bed and breakfast was to put a facility that my family would own and continue to operate that would preserve a lot of the natural area we have set aside, which is a little over 30 acres,” Boyd said.
The special district of the potential school is on a 13.65-acre lot.
A representative from Orange County Public Schools said the district has not acquired the property. The district is on hold with building new schools for the next 10 years due to its drop in enrollment, but West Orange continues to grow in population. If the district feels the need to open another school to relieve Hamlin Elementary, this property would be under consideration.
More than 70 residents attended the community meeting, with most concerned about the impact this development would have on traffic.
“Maybe (OCPS) will want to put the school there, maybe they won’t, I don’t know, but I’m planning it for them,” Boyd said. “They’re not participating financially in the planning process for this at all. We’re doing it.”
Boyd said regional transportation improvements will help with the relief of traffic in the area. The improvements include the completion of the Orange County portion of Wellness Way this year; work on State Road 516 from County Road 455 to State Road 429 is scheduled to be completed in 2027; work from CR 455 to U.S. 27 is scheduled for completion by 2029; the expansion of Hartwood Marsh Road in Lake County beginning in 2026; the realignment and new roundabout for traffic calming on Marsh Road; Hartwood Marsh Road to Lost Lake is scheduled for construction in 2026 and 2027; and work on Schofield Road to Wellness Way is scheduled for 2026 and 2027.
Residents disputed the regional transportation improvements, stating they address the overcapacity traffic issues residents already are facing. The concern is the proposed development will compound the existing traffic issues.
The next step for the proposal potentially is a March Winter Garden Planning and Zoning Commission meeting, and if the commission approves the plan, it will move forward to the Winter Garden City Commission.
Boyd said even if the project is approved, it probably would be two years before a groundbreaking would occur, and the project could take at least 10 years to complete.
