Lennar Homes is finalizing the contract for 180 acres on the west shore of Lake Tohopekaliga and recently filed preliminary plans for a residential subdivision across from its Storey Creek community south of Kissimmee.
The project makes up the bulk of the 202-acre Bronson Bay property on Pleasent Hill Road at Harbor Road. The land previously had county approvals for a mixed-use planned development with over 800 homes, but the Bronson Family Limited Partnership rezoned it last year to Low Density Residential.
Brian Cippelone, Lennar’s vice president of land acquisition, recently filed a Preliminary Subdivision Plan that carves out 22 acres at the southwest corner of the site for future commercial development and creates a residential community on the rest of the property with 172 townhomes and 386 detached homes, for a total of 558 dwelling units. The townhomes would be street-loaded with a minimum width of 25 feet. The detached homes would be 50-foot wide street-loaded and 32-foot alley-loaded bungalow units.
Planning firm Rj Whidden & Associates designed the community around a system of existing canals and wetlands that cut through the property, but that left them with an 18-lot cul-de-sac the northwest corner of the site, accessible only from Pleasant Hill Road, that is basically cut off from the rest of the community, except for a pedestrian path.
The rest of the neighborhood would have two primary access points on Pleasant Hill and Harbor Road. The plan sets aside a 2.34-acre tract for a future HOA amenity center and creates a perimeter trail system with pedestrian bridges in at least two locations.
Osceola County planners have asked for revisions to the initial plan to improve the connectivity for the cul-de-sac. Both the planning and engineering staff denied the project, as submitted, on Dec. 21.
Located about a 1.5 miles south of U.S. 17-92, the area has grown into a suburban enclave. Bronson Bay is immediately south of the Oak Hammock Preserve, which was developed more than a decade ago.
Across Pleasant Hill Road, Lennar is actively selling in Storey Creek, a nearly 1,000-home master-planned community that stretches from Ham Brown Road to Pleasant Hill. And the Osceola Village Center, just north of Shingle Creek, will bring hundreds of homes and townhomes by Stanley Martin Homes and D.R. Horton, along with a rehabilitation hospital and apartments.
The land was the former homestead of the late Murray Bronson, a cattle rancher and longtime county tax collector, and his wife, Linda.
Have a tip about Central Florida development? Contact me at lkinsler@GrowthSpotter.com or (407) 420-6261, or tweet me at @byLauraKinsler. Follow GrowthSpotter on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
