Sprawl Marches On In Central Florida

"In 1951, the year Fred Gray was born, his family bought 11 acres on the Econlockhatchee River for about $36 an acre. But lately Gray, who built a home in 1984 on the property with his wife, Cindy, can hardly picture the wooded retreat of his youth. He feels like they`re just a few houses shy of living in the heart of suburbia. "It`s hard to follow everything that`s happening," he said. "It`s mind-boggling how many subdivisions have gone up in the last 10 years. "We`re actually starting to talk about moving farther out." Such sentiment isn`t uncommon in Central Florida. Rapid change has been a fact of life since the Walt Disney Co. put Orlando on the map with the opening of the Magic Kingdom in 1971. But nowhere is the pace of growth more striking than in east Orange, where construction machinery and "Coming Soon" signs have become a bigger part of the scenery than cattle or wildlife. The once-remote region has attracted tens of thousands of newcomers who, ironically, are often as unhappy about all the development as the old-timers."