Land Use Success and Failure in Two Florida Towns

"[S]ales are on the increase in Venice, where prices did decline in the last year, but by less than two percent. 22 percent of the houses currently for sale in Venice are in some stage of foreclosure; that sounds like a lot until you consider that in Lehigh Acres the portion is 56 percent. Perhaps the most telling difference between the two is the average sale price per square foot, which in Venice is almost three times that in Lehigh Acres ($110 as opposed to $38).

Writing in the St. Petersburg Times in August 2009, Kris Hundley called Lehigh Acres 'Florida's lesson in unregulated growth.'"

The two cities are the focus of an upcoming documentary from PBS, which compares the walkable and compact Venice to the sprawling and rapidly declining Lehigh Acres.