The Lake County Commission has approved land use and zoning changes for 550 acres in the Wolf Branch Innovation District, setting the stage for large-scale commercial, industrial, and residential development east of downtown Mount Dora. The project, known as Mount Dora North and South, aims to expand job opportunities in the county, but not all commissioners are in agreement on its impact.

The commission voted 4-1 in favor of the project, with Commissioner Anthony Sabatini as the lone dissenting vote. “I voted no on this project because it’s destructive of the distinctive agricultural identity of our Lake County community,” Sabatini says. “We do not need to ‘innovate’ our horse farms, strawberry farms, and cattle pastures—we should protect them from the sprawl. I was shocked I was the only no vote.”

The development, led by Richland Communities, is separate from a previously approved high-rise project within the Wolf Branch Innovation District, a designated growth area along State Road 46 and State Road 453. The vision for the district includes a “live, work, play” atmosphere that county officials believe will curb the number of residents who currently commute outside of Lake County for work.

The Mount Dora North section will feature a town center, commercial spaces, offices, education facilities, and a mix of housing types, while Mount Dora South will include over 10 million square feet of light industrial space for manufacturing, research, and distribution.

Commissioner Leslie Campione, who voted in favor of the project, emphasized that the land had been designated for employment and regional office space for more than three decades, making it a long-planned part of the county’s economic growth strategy. 

“The approvals granted by the BCC did not increase the density and land uses over what has been on the books for over thirty years,” she says.

In a letter written from our inquiry as to why the decision was made, Campione responded with this: 

“The only hope we have for protecting Lake County’s rural character and bringing sanity to growth management is for cities to stop annexing rural and semi rural land and implement the following two policies:

1. Cities should say “no” to any annexations in the County’s Rural and Rural Transition land use designations that increase the densities beyond what is allowed on the Lake County Future Land Use Map.
2. Cities wishing to expand their boundaries should acquire right of way and funding needed to upgrade rural roads to urban standards when cities annex land on those roads into its city limits (just upgrading the part that abuts the project does not fix the impacts being placed on roads used to access new subdivisions approved by a city).

If these two things are done, we have a chance of saving Lake County’s character and allowing infrastructure to catch up to massive population explosion in our own county and State. Keep in mind that there are huge numbers of travelers each day just passing through our County on U.S. Hwy 441, Hwy 27, SR 50, and connector roads such as SR 19, SR 44, and SR 44B. If we had no new development anywhere in our county or cities, unfortunately our major roads will still be congested due to “through” traffic.”

Campione highlighted the infrastructure and job creation tied to the project in question. 

“To meet Mount Dora’s job creation criteria, and to assure compliance with a Florida economic development grant that paid for widening of Round Lake Road and the design of the Round Lake Road extension, the County designated the Mount Dora South PUD primarily for job creation,” she says. “By focusing on light industrial uses for the land south of SR 46 adjacent to the ‘453’ Wekiva Parkway, the parcel north of SR 46 is able to be limited to non-industrial uses such as a town center, offices, hospital, education, retail and a mixture of housing types.”

Beyond this, Campione pointed to road improvements aimed at alleviating local traffic congestion. 

“The developer is required to build a spine road between SR 46/Sorrento Ave to Round Lake Road, including intersection improvements that will facilitate moving school drop-off/pick-up traffic away from Round Lake Road onto a new road called Vista Ridge,” she says. “In addition, the approval of this project facilitates major drainage improvements that will help alleviate flooding in the Wolf Branch/Round Lake Road area.”

While some see the project as a step toward economic growth, others, like Sabatini, argue that it will contribute to urban sprawl at the cost of the county’s rural identity.

The project’s approval moves it past one of its biggest governmental hurdles, shifting the focus toward engineering, permitting, and site planning before construction begins.