Winter Garden residents who fought unsuccessfully to stop former Orange County Commissioner Scott Boyd from developing his McKinnon Groves property in Wellness Way are gearing up for another battle — this time in their own backyard.
Boyd’s McKinnon Corp. has filed plans with the city of Winter Garden to rezone the former citrus groves along Johns Lake into a mixed-use development with housing, parks and a boutique hotel with an event barn and wedding chapel. The property currently has an Urban Village future land use, but isn’t zoned.
More than 70 Winter Garden residents attended a community meeting earlier this week hosted by Boyd and his development team, led by LRK and AGMCi LLC Principal Geoffrey McNeill.
Located near the Lake-Orange county line, the Johns Lake Urban Village Planned Unit Development, or UVPUD, is set to contain 613 attached and detached single-family homes on just over 319 acres.
McKinnon Corp., which owns the property, would serve as the developer of the project and would retain 3.36 acres of lakefront property where Boyd currently resides.
Preliminary development plans for the Johns Lake UVPUD indicate the community would include a mix of single-family home types across the property and two special districts: one for a potential public school and another for a 31.6-acre resort district.
Former Orange County Commissioner Scott Boyd and others met with area residents for a community meeting at SunRidge Middle School in Winter Garden to discuss Boyd’s proposed Johns Lake PUD, a 613-home community planned on just over 319 acres near the Lake-Orange County line. (James Wilkins/GrowthSpotter)
Meeting with Boyd and other project leaders at SunRidge Middle School in Winter Garden on Wednesday night, residents voiced concerns about the project related to traffic in the area and the potential OCPS elementary school.
A major point of contention stemmed from planned transportation improvements to Marsh Road, which residents felt would not be sufficient for what they deemed an “already congested” roadway.
Winter Garden resident Sarah Matin, who is also a civil engineer, said the project lacked details on how the developer would address the increased traffic. She’s also worried about there being only one way in and out of the project through Williams Road.
The street network plan for the proposed Johns Lake PUD in Winter Garden shows the project’s only entrance and exit location on Williams Road. (Provided by AGMCi Planning & Design)
Boyd pointed to several ongoing or planned roadway projects in the area that could ease traffic coming toward and away from the Johns Lake UVPUD, including an extension of County Road 455 in Lake County that would better connect to U.S. 27 in Clermont, as well as a traffic light or roundabout at the intersection of Marsh Road and Williams Road.
Widening Avalon Road — the main north-south connecting road between Florida’s Turnpike and West Colonial Drive southbound to County Road 429 and beyond — is not popular with residents in the area and would require planning regional connections in the Horizon West area of Lake County, Boyd said.
Boyd identified other projects already underway and the lengthy planned development period for the Johns Lake UVPUD as a way to help mitigate traffic as the years pass.
“The [Central Florida Expressway Authority] is widening 429, we see [County Road 516] that’s coming in now, and that’s growing a lot, so we’re trying to plan ahead,” Boyd said. “This project is going to be probably 10 to 15 years, so we’re not looking at going in and taking 350 acres and the whole thing is going all at one time. It’s not that kind of project; we’re looking to do it sustainably like we did with Oakland Park.”
The special district would have a gated entrance and would include an inn and restaurant, event barn and event lawn, a wedding chapel, single and duplex bungalows, an observation deck, a walking trail, a boardwalk, and an event lawn. The neighborhood’s lakefront amenity would be just south of the special district and would have a pool and clubhouse, a community dock, a sports court, and a covered pavilion.
One of two special districts outlined within the proposed Johns Lake PUD in Winter Garden, plans for this 31.6-acre property include an inn, a restaurant, a wedding chapel, an event barn, a walking trail, a boardwalk with an observation deck and more. (Provided by AGMCi Planning & Design)
As part of the Wekiva Study Area, the special district would meet the open space design standards and maintain a 75-foot continuous buffer between the district boundary and adjacent residential lots, with walking paths, trails, and trail amenities permitted within the buffer.
The design standards also indicate a maximum building height of three stories, or 50 feet, and prohibit flat roofs as they do not meet permitted architectural styles as laid out in the preliminary plans.
The development plan specifies that no more than 40 rooms would be available for overnight guests at the main hotel, bed and breakfast venue, or associated cottages. Overnight accommodations within the lodging elements of the special district — as well as dining within the restaurant or other food service elements of the district — would be by reservation and appointment only, though both may be open to the general public.
“The idea behind the bed and breakfast was to put in a facility that my family could own and continue to operate that would preserve a lot of the natural area that we have,” Boyd said.
Plans for the other special district, a 13.7-acre site for Orange County Public Schools, specify that if OCPS does not build a school, residential lots can be transferred to the site from other areas of the development. Non-residential uses may also be prohibited through a special exception process.
The proposed site would serve as a relief school for Hamlin Elementary School, according to OCPS Facilities Planning senior specialist Stefani Vitale, and has not yet been purchased by the school district.
Vitale said OCPS will decide whether to go forward with a school inside the Johns Lake UVPUD based on need as the area grows. Construction would take about three years should the school district decide to move forward.
“This is not on our 10-year plan, but that can be changed as need arises,” she said. “We currently don’t have any plan to build this school until 2036.”
Winter Garden resident Doug Vought, whose property sits along the county line on the Orange County side, said he has known Boyd for years and is generally supportive of the project, except for the proposed school.
“I don’t agree with the school because I don’t like school traffic,” he said. “Where I am, it’s like building a business at the end of a dead-end street. You’ve got to drive in and out that way.”
Lot types for homes within PUD would range from townhomes, cottage homes, village homes and park homes to estate homes and lakefront estate homes.
The townhomes will range from 18- to 32-foot lots, cottage homes from 40- to 45-foot lots, village homes from 45- to 55-foot lots and park homes from 55- to 65-foot lots. Estate homes will range from 65- to 85-foot lots, and lakefront estate homes will only have 90-foot lots or larger.
While site data from the preliminary development plan indicates the residential portion of the project could be split into two phases, developers noted that final phasing would be determined and submitted with the preliminary plat.
Taylor Morrison has begun home sales in Esplanade at McKinnon Groves and is anticipated to open in early 2026. (Site plan by GL Summitt Engineering)
McKinnon Corp., a longtime citrus grower, sold 358 acres across the county line in Lake County’s Wellness Way area to Taylor Morrison, which is developing it as an Esplanade-branded resort lifestyle community. The Arizona-based homebuilder partnered with New York-based Kennedy Lewis Investment Services to purchase the property for $59.6 million just before Thanksgiving in 2024.
Lake County Commissioners approved the PUD rezoning for McKinnon Groves in 2021 over the objections of area residents, some of whom called the project a “suburban nightmare.”
Sales within the 658-home community are ongoing and, according to Taylor Morrison, Esplanade at McKinnon Groves is anticipated to open in “early 2026.”
Fireside gathering areas at Esplanade. (Courtesy of Taylor Morrison)
The neighborhood will be developed in four phases, starting at Hartwood Marsh Road and moving south. Phase 1 will have 266 homes.
The Esplanade product line includes front-loaded attached villas, priced from $345,000, and single-story detached homes that start at $430,000. The largest floorplan is just over 3,000 square feet and starts in the low $600s.
Have a tip about Central Florida development? Contact me at jwilkins@orlandosentinel.com or 407-754-4980. Follow GrowthSpotter on Facebook and LinkedIn.