Property Owner Sues to Stop Country's Largest Prison Project

COLEMAN, FL-Jeff Hover, a property owner and resident of the Indian Oaks subdivision that will abut a new $89 million federal prison 95 miles northwest of Downtown Orlando, is suing the U.S. Bureau of Prisons to stop the project, the largest penitentiary site in the nation and one of the largest construction projects in Central Florida.

Hover and Indian Oaks residents want the new 884-cell men’s correctional structure to be built in another part of Sumter County, away from nearby housing developments.

Bureau of Prison officials have told residents they need the new building to house 1,000 inmates that are part of the nation’s prison over-population. Prison officials say they will plant trees and build berms to shield a portion of the new prison from the subdivision.