City's Plan For Downtown Falls Short

Five years after the City of Lake Mary approved a master plan to redevelop its downtown of wood-framed houses into a thriving center, the plan remains largely unrealized. The city, which lies north of Orlando and is known for its concentration of upper middle class families, had hoped to attract small scale mixed-use development to its core, while simultaneously investing in civic projects.

"But the only developer who has bought into this plan is Terry Shaw, who is completing the second phase of a 24,000-square-foot office center directly behind City Hall...Developers say the difficulty lies mainly in the in-fill style of development, which builds in and around existing neighborhood, [and] the city has been reluctant to get involved in the process by buying land in large chunks."

Now residents and officials are trying to decide if a new approach is needed, or if all that is required is continued patience.