Developments Await Comp Plan Completion

Avon Park's city planner said he is hoping to get the city's comprehensive plan finished in the next month or two, which would allow the work on three large developments to finally begin.

Ground-breaking for the first phases of three developments, including a two-square-mile parcel surrounding the new Wal-Mart store that is nearly half the land mass of the entire city, could begin in as little as 24 months after the plan updates are completed, attorney Augie Fragala said Wednesday.

Planner Gary Thompson said the city hasn't completed an update on its comprehensive plan - a set of documents the city uses to map out its growth and plan its water lines, utilities, school, roads and other infrastructure - in 18 years. In laymen's terms, whenever a large development is proposed, the city needs to have this plan ready so that it can determine how the development will alter the growth of the whole area.

According to the Department of State, a city's comprehensive plan is supposed to be updated every five to seven years.

Thompson said he spent most of a year trying to get the plan updated. It involves several lengthy reviews by the state that took up a large part of that time.

The developers applied for the land-use changes 18 months ago for the three proposed developments, Fragala said. Those three are:

"Shop 16," a 1,267-acre parcel owned by Ben Hill Griffin that is immediately west of the new Wal-Mart and will have residential, office and commercial space,

Pioneer Lake Estates, a residential subdivision owned by Crews Groves, which will include 653 units on about 123 acres north and west of Pioneer Lake, and

Pinecrest, a nine-acre plot also owned by Crews Groves on Lake Lotela near State Road 17 that will become a 100-unit multifamily complex.

Fragala said all three have been in limbo while Crews and Griffin waited for the plan updates.

"Have we been set back, yeah we have," he said. "We wish it didn't happen but it's not the end of the world."

Thompson said he could understand the developers being frustrated with the slow pace of the updates. Because the plans were obsolete for years, the state won't allow the city to let any of the three developments move forward until the work on the comprehensive plan is finished.

Currently, consultants from Lakeland-based Chastain-Skillman are working on the water line plans that are part of the updates. After they're done, Thompson said, the plan should go to a vote at the city council before the entire comprehensive plan is considered "in compliance," and then the city can let the three developments continue.

Thompson said while he hoped to have it within the next month or two, he deferred to Chastain-Skillman to get a timeline for the update. A message to Chastain-Skillman was directed to consultant Paul Bizier, who did not respond by press time.