A 1,300-plus acres of ranch land in Seminole County, a privately-owned exotic animal ranch in the Town of Oakland and more than 840 acres in the Wellness Way Area of Lake County — Pulte Homes is going after all three properties with plans to build new homes.
In Seminole County, part of the namesake ranch of Ed and Imogene Yarborough is being looked at by Pulte Homes for a proposed single-family home community.
County records show Aaron Struckmeyer, land planning and entitlements manager at Pulte Group, applied for a Future Land Use Map amendment and Planned Development rezoning for a maximum of 300 lots on 1,360.5 acres at 1355 Snow Hill Road.
The Yarborough family, descendants of pioneers who settled the area in 1884, ran a cattle operation on the 8,000-acre ranch for decades. Known as the Yarborough Ranch, the property was used to raise cattle until Ed’s death in 2000.
The property lies in eastern Seminole County, next to Little Big Econ State Forest.
Division President Clint Ball told GrowthSpotter the community will be a “high-end luxury community” with 1-acre minimum-sized lots.
“The site will feature a significant amount of water front lots and cater to the many families that want to live in Seminole County for schools, employment, and accessibility to the Orlando MSA,” he said.
In the Town of Oakland, Pulte Homes is partnering with an undisclosed homebuilder to assemble roughly 70 acres of land just south of Lake Apopka with plans to build a 98-unit single-family home community.
The property has been owned by the Briley family for generations, originating with Samuel J. Briley and Fannie Edna Rich who settled on the property and grew produce in the 1990s.
More recently the property was being used as an exotic animal ranch where zebras, miniature donkeys, and an ancient breed of African Watusi cattle could be found lurking on its grounds.
Struckmeyer is requesting to rezone the property from Agricultural (AG) and Agricultural County (A-1) to PD. Plans call for a mix of 45-foot-wide, 60-foot-wide and 100-foot-wide estate lots.
Ball said Pulte Homes would have a very small position of less than 20 lots in the community. “It is not something that is certain for us at this point. Another builder has most of the lots.”
Smaller lots are located in the center of the proposed subdivision and larger lots are on the perimeter and northerly area towards Lake Apopka. The conceptual site plan shows the community will feature several small open space areas and a designated amenity area.
Paul Bryan, trustee of Briley Farms Holdings LLC, and Rebecca Wilson, an attorney and shareholder with Lowndes, are representing the ownership groups.
In Lake County, Pulte Homes is pursuing even larger plans.
The homebuilder is looking to take control of roughly 840 acres east of U.S. 27, between Schofield Road and Frank Jarrell Road with plans to build a maximum of 1,267 residential units. The bulk of the land was sold to Canadian homebuilder GT Homes in 2021 for $51.5 million. The land is included in the Wellness Way Sector, but it still has Agricultural zoning.
According to recently filed development applications, half of the homes in the proposed community would be age-restricted, similar to its 55-plus Del Webb community that Pulte Homes is developing in Hills of Minneola and in Osceola County’s Sunbridge community.
Ball said they are in preliminary discussions to determine if a portion of the project could be a Del Webb community.
“This would be a smaller Del Webb, likely 500 lots, and be similar to our Del Webb Oasis community on Hartzog road,” he said. “We have seen a significant interest from 55-plus buyers who are drawn to this area due to the proximity to Disney, Horizon’s West Town Center, all of the development coming to Wellness Way, and overall great location.”
The homebuilder engaged Erika Hughes with VHB Inc. as the civil engineer and GAI Consultants’s Community Solutions Group as the land planner.
A conceptual residential development program shows the age-restricted homes will rise on 224 acres. According to plans, townhomes may be part of the development program. And the primary residences will rise on 184 acres on the northern and eastern portions of Lake Adain.
Features include a dock and recreational trail around Pike Lake. Other amenities include a 5-acre amenity area and a separate 3-acre amenity area.
Pulte Homes’ Orlando division has been bullish in Central Florida.
In the month of December alone, it closed on a total of about $120 million land sales, including the final two phases of Tohoqua, Phase 2 of its Del Webb Sunbridge community, and a large investment in Beachline North Residential LLC to gain control of the first 1,000 lots in Vista Park, a 1,572-acre mixed-use master-planned community in Orange County.
It’s also planning its second residential community in Apopka’s Kelly Park Interchange District.
Have a tip about Central Florida development? Contact me at arabines@GrowthSpotter.com or (407) 491-3357, or tweet me at @amanda_rabines. Follow GrowthSpotter on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
