'We have to expand our town to survive': Lake Hamilton grows 20% with 626-acre annexation

The Town of Lake Hamilton is poised to expand its land mass by more than 20% through an annexation that has been winding its way through approvals by the Town Council.

Mayor Michael W. Kehoe said in a recent phone interview that at just over four square miles, Lake Hamilton is small and getting compressed by developments in Haines City and Dundee.

“If we do not allow annexation and development, the Town of Lake Hamilton – we will have our centennial next year – we will disappear,” Kehoe said. “We have to expand our town to survive.

“And everyone on the council; this has been a discussion for years,” he said.

The council has already voted to annex 626.82 acres during its Nov. 7 meeting. It then voted in favor of a zoning change to accommodate an expansion of the Hamilton Bluff subdivision. That's planned on the land being developed by a Cassidy family business shown in town records as GLK Real Estate LLC.

The zoning change passed initially and now requires a second reading before a final vote that is currently slated for the council's December meeting.

The process hit a snag with the required state approvals and some of the process will have to be restarted. With the annexation complete, the town’s planning commission will have to review options for the land, Kehoe said. The land has to be rezoned, and the comprehensive plan will be sent to the state of Florida for approval. The council will then approve the comprehensive plan, he said.

According to Lake Hamilton’s senior planner Chris Kirby, an emergency planning commission meeting was held Nov. 13 to deliberate on the zoning change for additional single-family homes on the land, he said. The four-member planning commission approved the zoning change by a 3-0 vote with Mike Floridino absent.

The Florida Department of Economic Opportunity requires that a planning commission review applications for annexations over 50 acres, he said. Lake Hamilton also has a similar requirement per its ordinances.

The emergency planning commission meeting was not listed on the town’s website. Kirby said the meeting was "advertised locally."

'A lot of room to grow'

Lake Hamilton is 4.104 square miles, or 2,626.56 acres. With an additional 626.82 acres, its land mass would swell to 3,253.38 acres – an increase of more than 20%.

According to the Florida Legislative Office of Economic and Demographic Research, the town's current population was 1,571 as of April.

Rich Doty, a research demographer with the University of Florida, said the state data that he helps to calculate is based on electric utility customers primarily, as well as building permits. The data does not include seasonal residences per state law.

"That whole area is growing fast and Lake Hamilton is not a big city but there may be some annexations and obviously they have got a lot of room to grow," Doty said. "I wouldn't be at all surprised to see their population double over the next 10 years or more than that."

Lake Hamilton is already seeing exponential growth based on the number of building permits. According to Kirby, the city issued 261 this year through Thursday, compared with only one in 2022.

'We have an active development presence'

In a presentation to the School Board, Public School Development Solutions projected 12,000 single-family homes could be built within the vicinity of Lake Hamilton, Haines City, Dundee and Winter Haven in the county's fast growing northeastern region.

Several corporations registered with the Florida Department of State and listing Cassidy family members as managing members have purchased large swaths of acreage along the Lake Wales Ridge within Polk County over the past decade, state and Polk property records show.

The voluntary annexation application lists GLK Real Estate LLC as the applicant with Heather E. Wertz representing the landowner, the application said. The address for GLK is 346 E. Central Ave. in Winter Haven, which is located in the Cassidy Office Campus, county property records show.

Steve Cassidy, president of Cassidy Homes, said the Hamilton Bluff community is expected to break ground in the first quarter of 2024.

“We have an active development presence on the ridge, and Lake Hamilton happens to be one of the towns that we have available land position in and we are intending to develop in,” he said.

As a developer providing finished lots to home builders, the impact fees for the infrastructure to support a subdivision would be due when the builder applies for a building permit, Cassidy said. There are about a dozen or so fees at the moment that can go as high as $25,000 per unit.

Citing a moral obligation, Cassidy said his firm has started working with Polk County on transportation projects to provide new residents moving into Cassidy subdivisions with road improvements.

In Lake Hamilton, Cassidy also helped fund the construction of a new wastewater treatment plant that recently was built, he said.

“We’re taking on certain projects that we don’t have to because, as one of the major developers in this market, we feel like there is a certain responsibility that we have,” Cassidy said. “Since we are putting in the houses and drawing people into the market, we should try to do our part to try to facilitate that and not put it on the back of the county to figure out 10 years from now. We’re trying to figure it out today.”

'They support us'

In addition to the pending zoning change, there is also an ordinance to change the town’s comprehensive plan, which would include changing the current land use from agricultural rural to a Planned Unit Development.

The agricultural-rural land designation allows one house per five acres while a PUD allows higher densities of homes per acre.

"Regarding the number of units allowed for the acreage, it would depend on the required percentage of open space and amenities," Kirby said. "A conservative approximate number for this amount of acreage would be 1,600 units."

He said the town has not received a site plan at this point in the process.

During the November meeting, there was zero discussion about the annexation before it was unanimously approved by the five-member council. Nor did the minutes to the prior meeting in October show any discussion by the council members on the town's expansion. There were no requests from the public to discuss the annexation before the vote, either.

When asked about the lack of discussion prior to the vote, Kehoe said he was unopposed in the last election because the people in Lake Hamilton are "very happy about what we are getting done."

"I've always supported the residents of Lake Hamilton and they support us," he said.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Lake Hamilton grows by 20% with 626-acre annexation. More homes coming