And Dr. Clayton Pruitt of St. Petersburg, FL has completed two years of negotiations with Leesburg and the Florida Department of Community Affairs to build a mixed-use project on 3,500 acres south of County Road 470. However, none of the planned ventures is expected to break ground until the interchange is completed in March 2005, local construction industry estimators tell GlobeSt.com. Okahumpka, with a permanent population of 2,000, is 48 miles northwest of Downtown Orlando.

Leesburg, meanwhile, is studying the first draft of a master plan prepared by Orlando-based Land Design Innovations Inc. which highlights the city's proposed commercial park, city staffers tell GlobeSt.com. Of the park's 350 acres, only about 56% will be used for the construction of buildings. The remainder of the park's space will be kept as open space, wetlands and for uses that don't require the construction of a building, staffers say.

The city wants to avoid having smoke-stack industries in the park, says Leesburg city manager Ron Stock. The reference is to Covanta which operates a trash incinerator at Okahumpka that has been a controversial issue in the area for years.