County Shuts Down Pulte Subdivision

ORLANDO-In an unprecedented zoning code enforcement action, Osceola County building officials have shut down an estimated $20-million subdivision of 67 planned townhomes and single-family homes being constructed by Bloomfield Hills, MI-based Pulte Homes Inc. 20 miles south of Downtown. The county alleges Pulte violated building-permit regulations. Osceola officials allege that Pulte was constructing four-bedroom homes at its Windsor Hills subdivision near Walt Disney World when the project is approved for only three-bedroom structures and two-car garages. Pulte has told the county it converted a garage bay into a fourth bedroom in about 30 properties when buyers demanded the extra sleeping area, county officials confirm for GlobeSt.com. County and Pulte officials are trying to work out a solution to the alleged zoning violation, but building officials in neighboring counties tell GlobeSt.com Osceola County has “no alternative but to order Pulte to tear down the garage-converted bedrooms.”Building officials in Seminole, Orange and Volusia counties point to a comparable Martin County incident in South Florida three years ago where the county ordered a developer to demolish a 300-unit apartment project which the courts later ruled violated local zoning regulations.The Pulte homes sell for $300,000 and were unoccupied when the county shut down the project. Osceola County brokers familiar with the home-investment market in the Disney tourist corridor tell GlobeSt.com the properties become more valuable to the investor when more bedrooms are added. “Investors often buy these properties in well-to-do neighborhoods, then rent them out to foreign tourists for the entire season or even rent them out by the month to locals or American vacationers,” an Osceola County broker who has handled similar leasing deals for owners, tells GlobeSt.com.Windsor Hills is near the former Splendid China attraction, off Old Lake Wilson Road. Construction of several homes in the subdivision is nearing completion but estimated sales volume to date was not available by GlobeSt.com’s publication deadline.