Sale of nearly 2,000 acres to The Villages approved

LEESBURG — The Villages is on track for another major expansion in Lake County, this time in a farflung area of Leesburg that previously was targeted for industrial development.

City commissioners voted 4-1 last week to approve the sale of 1,938 acres — about 1,400 football fields — to the megaretirement community on County Road 470 about eight miles southwest of downtown and just east of a Florida’s Turnpike interchange.

After years of concentrating on putting up new homes in Sumter County, The Villages is in the midst of a project to build 2,055 homes in the Lake County city of Fruitland Park. Now comes a push into Leesburg.

“It’s a galactic shift in what we’ve been trying to do for the last 15 years,” Leesburg City Manager Al Minner said. “There’s opportunity for the city to grow on the residential, commercial factor.”

The sale stands to net the city $8.7 million and the city is expected to collect another $4.5 million in property taxes annually after the homes are built. Construction could start in five to seven years.

The deal extends The Villages’ boundaries farther south — one of the few directions for it to grow.

For commissioners of one Lake’s least well-to-do cities, the economic benefits brought on by The Villages is hard to resist. The development could add about 4,500 homes to the city of 22,000.

That would represent a meteoric increase in newhome construction in the city, which has averaged 176 single-family home starts annually since 2003.

Commissioner John Christian cast the only vote against the sale. He floated the idea of a per-home contribution to Leesburg’s affordable-housing trust fund, saying it only makes sense that The Villages assist Leesburg’s low-income earners.

“We are looking out for the entire city of Leesburg — not just getting a check, not just getting revenue,” Christian said.

Other commissioners sounded receptive to the idea but were noncommittal. The proposal could reemerge as city officials iron out details such as providing utilities and public safety over the next nine months.

More rooftops for retirees will mean an increase in traffic in the area. That section of the turnpike handles about 45,300 cars a day, based on an annual average. County Road 470 — where the largest federal prison in the country is just down the road from the Leesburg site — gets 11,000 cars in that area.

That could make a widening of the road imperative, officials said.

“As this comes closer to fruition, I would probably think The Villages participate greatly as to how it [C.R. 470] is modified,” Minner said.