With the Osceola Parkway extension now moving toward state approval, Tavistock Development Company is making adjustments to the plan for its southern expansion at Lake Nona on the former Poitras Airport-owned property, and the master developer has filed plans for its first Laureate Park-branded community in the expansion area.
The company designated the 64-acre N-3 community south of Luminary Boulevard as Laureate Park South and designed a traditional 235-home community with eight different lot sizes and product types. The plan would increase the number of housing units from the original 182 by transferring residential rights from communities N-1 and N-2, which were not designed, so the total number of residential units remains unchanged.
The development plan calls for two types of townhouses: standard 24-foot (6-meter) wide five-unit buildings and a "big house" style product consisting of three 30-foot (9-meter) wide attached units surrounded by single-family homes of varying sizes. Dozens of bungalows with back entrances would face a central thoroughfare, which carries the Laureate Park landscaping theme.
The community lies to the east of the Isle of Lake Nona project, with 500 homes, by Pulte Homes, and a future 30-acre school to the west. There is no connectivity between the Pulte project and the N-3, but there will be several access points to a new road that will connect Luminary Boulevard to Boggy Creek Road to the south, crossing the toll road. The N-4 community, approved for a gated community with 124 oversized lots, lies to the north - on the other side of Luminary Boulevard.
The N-3 concept plan was presented in conjunction with an amendment to the approved Planned Development of the Poitras East property to incorporate the 708-acre Poitras West property that Tavistock purchased in October for $49.35 million. The amendment would assign PD zoning to the area and designate specific residential, commercial and industrial districts.
It identifies three new residential complexes and seeks approval for 1,625 units of housing. Of these, 700 are located in the two Village Center areas south of Luminary, and 242 units will be age-restricted. All the homes in the master plan will be located within 400 meters of a local park.
"The goal of this plan is to provide green corridors in residential neighborhoods to connect residents to parks and recreation options, in addition to the Lake Nona and Poitras East multi-use trail networks," according to the project narrative.
The entire master plan would entitle 400,000 square feet of retail and commercial space in the centers, along with 2.24 million square feet of high-intensity airport support uses on nearly 125 acres in the western portion.
The new master plan would set aside 718 acres for parks, conservation, lakes and roads. This includes 210 acres of "passing lane" for the Osceola Parkway extension. Tavistock and Deseret Ranch/Suburban Land Reserve control 80 percent of the right-of-way for the future expressway. They agreed to sell it to the Central Florida Expressway Authority for less than half the appraised value as part of an incentive to choose the preferred alignment. CFX voted in December to select the developer-approved route, but the project still needs to get approval from the Community Trust of Florida before moving into the design and construction phases.