GlobeSt.com UPDATE: Sugarloaf Mountain Venture Gets New Life

CLERMONT, FL-Sugarloaf Mountain, a scenic 350-foot high, 1,434-acre tract whose surrounding areas have hosted international bicycle races and family outings for years, may be back on the drawing boards as a planned $1.2 billion mixed-use enterprise, if Gov. Jeb Bush and his six-member Cabinet support a Tallahassee judge’s ruling on the property. The governor’s decision is expected no later than November.

Judge Donald R. Alexander, who serves in the administrative law division of the state government, has ruled Lake County should give a second five-year development extension to the Orlando owners of the tract, 25 miles west of Downtown Orlando.

The county refused the extension last September after the developers failed to do anything with the prime dirt in the project’s 17-year planning history. The developers plan 800 homes, an 18-hole golf course and clubhouse, and an undetermined amount of commercial and retail on the Lake Apopka site between County Road 561 and County Road 455.