“…a dozen golf courses, heliports and 15 distinct neighborhoods with nearly 34,000 homes.”

34,000 homes in a rural area of Florida, this is something Florida does not need.  Florida already cannot  sustain its potable water use.

Thanks to Osceola County for  following the rules.

We have seen other county leaders who are so unabashedly greedy when tempted by money that they fall all over themselves to quickly change the rules so they can do what they want, not what their constituents want.

Defeated projects like this often linger in the shadows, ready to re-emerge when circumstances allow.  So a battle is won, but the war to pave over all of Florida is far from over.

Read the original article here in the Orlando Sentinel.

Comments by OSFR historian Jim Tatum.
jim.tatum@oursantaferiver.org
– A river is like a life: once taken,
it cannot be brought back © Jim Tatum

Sun Terra withdraws plans for massive retirement community in rural Osceola

Sun Terra Communities is withdrawing plans for a 34,000-home retirement community on the Rohde cattle ranch in Osceola’s Yeehaw Junction. (Master plan by Rj Whidden & Associates)

By Laura Kinsler | lkinsler@growthspotter.com | GrowthSpotter

PUBLISHED: October 17, 2023 at 7:00 a.m. | UPDATED: October 17, 2023 at 1:01 p.m.

With political headwinds and county staff opposed to his plan for a Villages-like retirement community in Yeehaw Junction, Richard Jerman of Sun Terra Communities told GrowthSpotter he would withdraw the proposal.

Sun Terra was seeking a statement of no opposition from Osceola County for local legislation to create a special district that would have governed the massive project. Osceola staff strongly opposed the application because the property lies outside of the county’s Urban Growth Boundary.

“I’m very disappointed,” Jerman said. “I still believe this is a great project, but it is not approvable at this time.”

Sun Terra, which developed master-planned communities like Harmony and Hills of Minneola, was under contract to buy the 14,212-acre Rohde Ranch at State Road 60 and Florida’s Turnpike.

Last year the developer applied for a Comprehensive Plan Amendment to change the land use of the cattle ranch from Rural Agricultural to Low Density Residential. Jerman envisioned Sun Terra Lakes as a destination retirement community with a dozen golf courses, heliports and 15 distinct neighborhoods with nearly 34,000 homes.

The Rohde cattle ranch sprawls across 22 square miles on State Road 60 in south Osceola County. It was part of the doomed Destiny project, a proposed city in the heart of the Kissimmee River Valley that fizzled among a series of lawsuits, criminal convictions and economic recession….

“There are opportunities for utilization of the subject property, consistent with current our Comprehensive Plan policies which would not necessitate the large infrastructure and development needs that this district is proposing to serve,” a staff report said.

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