Central Florida Dissers...

[RoutemanDan]

...Need some info on Poinciana,Kissimmee and surrounding areas.What is your opinion of the area? What kind of communities are these?TIA.

 

[Tony-NJ]

It's gonna happen aint it!

 

[RoutemanDan]

You know it!

 

[Mackey Mouse]

RMD... are you moving??? when I was looking in the Orlando area, I looked at Dr. Phillips area and Windermere, I liked them both but thought when I do it I want to be closer to the water... I did not look in the towns you mentioned... I hope you get some answers, I am curious myself..

 

[RoutemanDan]

Hi Marsha
We are considering a new development,Bellalago.Check it out here.

 

[vickyBaby]

Don't we have a relocating to Orlando area board for this??

just kidding RMD

 

[PammyK]

It all depends on where you'll be working. If you're working downtown or below, you'll be okay but if your job is north or northeast of downtown it'll be an ugly commute from Kissimmee or Poinciana.

 

[RoutemanDan]

Originally posted by PammyK
It all depends on where you'll be working. If you're working downtown or below, you'll be okay but if your job is north or northeast of downtown it'll be an ugly commute from Kissimmee or Poinciana.

Thanks for the info but I was really looking for info on Poinciana and Kissimmee themselves.Specifically the area on this map where bellalago is.

<img src=http://www.mybellalago.com/web/images/area_locationmap_big.gif>

P.S. TVT,clean out your pm box.

 

[TennVolTony]

Cleaned out Dan........JUST what we need...Another Damn Yankee!!!!! Where will it end??????????

 

[Mackey Mouse]

Hmmm...nice houses Dan......you pave the way and the rest of us will follow... maybe I will settle in the Orlando area just so Tony can know that more Yankees are on their way..

 

[Tony-NJ]

any pictures..??

 

[disme]

Hi What would you like to know?
I live in Crescent lakes a Development on Poinciana blvd (by the schools) It is by the same developer as Bell. Avitar.

We like the area I work At DTD and it takes 20min to get to work(including parking and walking)

We are about 30 min from airport. and Fla Mall, downtown Orlando can be 45 min to 2 hours depending on rute and trafic.

This area is still kind of rural but is growing.

Let me know if you have any Questions!

Renee

 

[RoutemanDan]

Thanks Renee.
Tony Here are pics....

Terra Series

Oceana Series

 

[Tony-NJ]

They look real nice!!! My god, I sold my condo for that price!!!!

And the best part...

CHRIS DIDN'T SAY NO!!!!LOl but we we wouldn't consider moving for at least a year. But that's the farther than I normally get LOL!

By the way Dan - what are the taxes like?

 

[charlie,nj]

RMD,

I saw this on www.orlandosentinal.com the other day...

I am posting the whole story because I don't know when they will achieve it. Sorry for the length. The original had really nice pictures. Hey I will see you in florida some day...we have lots in Palm Coast.

PS - $150,000 WOW...as you know that wouldn't even buy a walk in closet in Northern New Jersey now a days.


Community of the future
Joe Newman
Orlando Sentinel

May 12, 2003

Fred Castro likes how everything -- shops, schools and parks -- will someday be within walking distance of the new four-bedroom house he moved into four months ago.

He enjoys the neighborly feel of strolling past a row of front porches, even if most are still under construction. But most of all, he likes that he could afford to buy just down the street from Windermere, which has some of the most expensive real estate in Orange County.

Castro, 40, is one of the first homeowners to stake a claim in Horizon West, a mammoth project that is delivering suburbia to Orange County's most western fringe.

"There's no two ways about it, this area has tremendous potential," said Castro, an Orange County deputy sheriff who grew up in the Orlando area.

But the 38,000-acre project, hailed for its innovative design, is giving nearby residents growing pains. They worry about jammed roads and polluted lakes -- and that their slow-paced lifestyle is at risk.

"It's still urbanization and sprawl no matter what label you put on it," said Jim Thomas, who owns a plant nursery on the edge of Horizon West, which was cobbled together in the wake of the crippling freezes of the 1980s that destroyed the area's citrus groves.

A decade after a group of landowners started talking about how to develop this rural area, two of the planned six Horizon West "villages" -- Bridgewater and Lakeside -- are under construction. Almost 700 homes have been built, and nearly 2,000 residents have moved in.

Another village is in the works -- D.R. Horton Custom Homes submitted an application in January to start the planning process. That same month, Orange County commissioners gave a private consultant the OK to begin designing a 4,000-acre town center, which will have shops, offices, restaurants, homes and a high school.

Many of the hundreds of people who tour the model homes each week are eagerly buying into the community's future.

But whether Horizon West is delivering on the promise of creating a model community, which incorporates the trappings of traditional downtown neighborhoods while recognizing the nuances of the suburbs, depends on whom you ask.

'Devil is in the details'

"A lot of the surrounding community had one idea what this whole village concept would be," Orange County Commissioner Teresa Jacobs said. "They liked all of those concepts -- a walkable community, neighborhood schools -- but as is always the case, the devil is in the details."

One county requirement for Horizon West developers is that every house be within two miles of an elementary school. To get the number of children needed to fill that many schools, the developers are building five or six homes an acre, compared with what can be found in areas in and around nearby Windermere, where a single house might sit on 2 or more acres.

"What they're getting is much more of a city in terms of density of development," Jacobs said. "And that's been a real challenge."

One of the things county commissioners had hoped Horizon West would do is slow some of the development that is leapfrogging over rural Orange County into Lake and Osceola.

That probably won't happen because of the booming markets in the other counties, said Jeffrey Jones, a planner with the East Central Florida Regional Planning Council, the agency that signs off on major developments in the metro Orlando area. But that doesn't mean Horizon West won't end up a model of how to build a community from scratch.

"Horizon West is not an antidote to the continued suburbanization of the area," Jones said. "It's a different type of development, a better type from my perspective."

But as its critics point out, the new homes will put thousands more cars on the roads and increase the amount of lawn chemicals, oil and other pollutants that will drain into the area's lakes.

Supporters say the alternative might have been worse.

Left alone, the stretch of groves, pasture and wooded uplands between Winter Garden and Walt Disney World might have eventually filled in with cookie-cutter subdivisions crammed next to strip malls and big-box shopping centers.

But Horizon West was pitched as a unique opportunity to shape the inevitable growth, rather than allowing development to chip away at the area until it became just another expanse of suburbia.

The houses and buildings must meet strict design standards, such as a requirement for many of the homes to have porches and back alleys. Homes are also placed in dense clusters so that trees and open spaces can be preserved between the villages and around lakes.

While metro Orlando has other examples of "new urbanism," where neighborhoods are laid out to encourage foot traffic and the kind of friendly bonding that takes place on front porches, none of those projects approaches the size of Horizon West.

The question is whether the land in west Orange and Lake adjacent to Horizon West will copy Horizon West's strict design regulations, or if typical urban sprawl will fill in around the development.

Lake's border with Horizon West is zoned for one house every 5 acres, but development interests and growth pressures will likely demand higher densities, said Lake Commission Chairman Welton Cadwell, also the chairman of the regional planning council.

"That vise is closing," Cadwell said. "The question now is can we preserve that area into some type of rural buffer? History will tell you that won't happen."

According to 1996 projections, Horizon West will have a population of 62,000 when built out, which could take 50 years. That's about the combined population of Apopka, Winter Garden and Ocoee today.

And that's not counting the 30,000 people who might end up living just across the county line in Lake County. Or the thousands more who will move into new developments that will fill in the space south of State Road 50, between Winter Garden and Horizon West.

Homes selling briskly

Larry Nicholson, Orlando division president of Ryland Homes, says sales are booming at Summer Port in the Village of Bridgewater, where Castro moved in February.

Homes in Summer Port, which feature columns and porches out front and alleys in the back, start at $175,000.

After opening the model homes in October, Ryland has sold about 100 homes and expects to sell its remaining 80 lots within the next six months. The company expects to sell out its 80 townhomes within the next month.

The other neighborhoods under construction in Horizon West are selling just as fast.

Buyers love the easy access to downtown Orlando via the S.R. 429 expressway and the promised state-of-the-art schools. Then there's the chance to share a mailing address with the multimillion-dollar mansions that ring nearby Lake Butler, while living literally at Walt Disney World's doorstep.

"For the price, I couldn't beat the value," said Castro, who paid about $200,000 for his home.

But some west Orange residents are warily watching the development grow.

Linda Dowling and her husband moved to the Windermere area four years ago from California.

They didn't know much about Horizon West before they bought their home in Lake Cawood Estates, a subdivision of half-million-dollar and up homes that backs up to the Village of Bridgewater.

"We moved out among the orange groves, silly us," she said.

At first, Dowling was concerned about a new city rising up behind her house, but the more she studied the plans, the more she became enamored with the idea of "Mayberry-like" villages.

"I like the idea of planning and not just allowing urban sprawl," she said. "But what we're seeing is something different from what we envisioned."

What concerns her and other residents in the area are various changes in the plan, such as developers seeking exceptions to build apartments in areas designated for townhomes. They are also concerned with the requirement that densities in the villages average five units per acre, a rule that state planners insisted upon.

That rule, however, will soon change. The state has said it is OK for the county to allow an average of four units per acre in any new villages. Orange County commissioners will approve the change next month.

"As much as I believe the plan had a lot of faults, the basic concept was good," Dowling said. "I hope it will all come together and not be a problem."

 

[ncligs]

Dan,

Thanks for the info and link on Bellalago, we will keep it in mind when we move in a couple of years(retirement).

 

[Zurg]

Cool, you bring your AP and do DATW when we come down for a visit.