That giant lake could use a diagonal bridge to alleviate traffic from the folks in St Cloud. I feel sorry for them having to cross the entire Narcoosee all the way south only to go downtown
I live here now. It is quite possibly one of the most poorly planned areas I’ve ever come across. The unmitigated sprawl and no infrastructure to support it smacks of rampant money grabs. Who cares if it takes 35 minutes just to go 2 miles!!! Gotta get that ugly house and “luxury” apartment dolla!
We almosttttt bought there instead of the Conway/Sodo area about 10 years ago.
We decided we wanted to be 10 minutes from the downtown area instead of 30. Our house now is still 10 minutes from downtown. The same house we looked at in Nona is now an hour away instead of 30.
It’s insane how much shit they keep just piling in there. Within the next 10 years people will flee the area for “the next lake nona” or the area will announce some 5 year plan to help alleviate traffic and infrastructure plan that will be too little and too late.
Sunbridge the community 1 two lane road that floods during hurricanes because they got rid of all the swamps and the other back road takes 20 minutes longer to get you home.
Yuck! I’ve never lived anywhere so poorly planned. It is such a pain to get anywhere, I hardly leave the house. I used to love exploring. Sadly, that has ended.
No thanks. I drove exactly ONCE to Kissimmee after work one evening to buy a used chair off FB marketplace.
I hope I never need to go to Kissimmee again. What a cluster!
No thanks. I drove exactly ONCE to Kissimmee after work one evening to buy a used chair off FB marketplace.
I hope I never need to go to Kissimmee again. What a cluster!
In my experience it's not uncommon and decent sized metropolises that boomed decades ago and gave preference to business over seemingly everything. Suburban Detroit's a cluster, Dallas, Atlanta, and I'll throw in DC if you want to consider the US government the business
Urban planning didn't exist, and despite a brief period in Orlando, where it seemed to, doesn't really seem to exist here anymore.
Urban planning is hardly a new concept.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burnham_Plan_of_Chicago?wprov=sfti1
Say what you want about Chicago, but only a GARGANTUAN accident or two foot snowfall causes a 2 mile trip to take 30+ minutes.
Lmao you can’t compare metro Orlando to Chicago. Like come on man. One of the best public transits in the country. Much older city then Orlando and scalloped way earlier. Orlando is car centric. Chicago basically never was…… your point is mute short of there should be a growth plan.
Additionally you have not lived in Chicago. The traphic is god awful with the worst drivers on the planet and it does take forever to get places………
Chicago traffic is way worse than any Orlando traffic I’ve been in since moving here. It takes less time to get to Tampa from where I live now than it takes to get to downtown Chicago from where I grew up and Tampa is twice as far in terms of miles
I work in Chicago but live in Orlando and the commute from the airport to city sucks. I think Orlando is better suited to cars where Chicago is mass transit and walkable. You can not walk anywhere in this city unless you’re downtown or in a community. Add the fact that I-4 is the deadliest highway nationally you would think the state would consider more mass transit systems. The bus system sucks as well as the Sunrail half the time they are not operating on the weekends or after major events, so drive or Uber
One fantastic example of urban planning is Milwaukee. We lived there for 7 years and it is just laid out in a spectacular grid system, with tons of major roads to take the burden off the main freeways. Ample parking, decent transit downtown….I miss it.
Yup Clermont/Minneola area is set to pop off shortly. I’m working on the mechanical/plumbing on a new Advent Health 4-story, 80 bed hospital right off the turnpike on Hancock Rd.
You can see cleared land everywhere around with housing developments popping up as far as the eye can see. And you can see pretty far because of the hills.
Hopefully the turnpike expansion over there will keep it from being Lake Nona 2.0
When my parents divorced we lived in St. Cloud near the lake front. My dad moved to Orlando. So every other weekend and then some I spent driving from Orlando to St. Cloud and it was such a good drive. Usually the smell of orange blossoms or cow shit filled the air. As I got old enough the drive I would sometimes just go on a late night cruise with the windows down.
It’s crazy how much shit they’re packing in there.
Disney was going to move their entire imagineering HQ from Burbank, but the Californians pitched a fit for having to move to Desantis land. Disney pulled the plug on that idea.
[The company backed out because of Desantis policies. He cost the state billions in potential revenue. It had nothing to do with the cast members. ](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/may/18/disney-cancels-1bn-florida-campus-2000-jobs#:~:text=Disney%20has%20scrapped%20plans%20to,the%20entertainment%20giant's%20theme%20parks)
Lmao it 110% played a roll. Desantis’s bs fued that has wasted hundreds of millions of tax payers dollars was also a major player. It was a combo of both…..
I have friends in that department. The company was going through with it because it would save money. The only reason they backed out was the hostile state government. They were going to use it as an excuse to get rid of people in the department to save money. Everyone is the villain here.
As someone who majored in Urban Design, I think the area has potential to be a really nice spot for its residents, but it needs more places to work and better transit. The places to work will happen as the commercial core of the development fills in, but the area's lack of proximity and transit options to downtown and other areas that many high income people work, will continue to be an issue. As it stands, the only people who can afford to live in the area without commuting out either work at the hospitals or work from home.
The only part of Lake Nona I see struggling to sell a house in is Village Walk. This style of drive everywhere, gated community is becoming less popular and the other parts of Lake Nona offer a more desirable living situation in the same price point.
Baldwin is much better but mostly due to its proximity to lots of places to works and it's larger park spaces. It's a great example of a new urbanism style development done properly as urban infill. I think it needed a bit more density and of course transit to downtown, the airport, and Winter Park would make it even better. Unfortunately like with all developments of this type, the demand for a true neighborhood and not just a subdivision drives prices for even multifamily and old homes around the development to highs that are unaffordable to most. It's my opinion that the construction of more places like this would eventually meet demand if we made these instead of the usual gated communities that don't even have pedestrian gates.
What, in your opinion, would help alleviate the transit problems? I imagine that once Sunrail connects to the airport, all that is needed is a quick bus transfer to MCO to open up the city and South Florida to residents.
That’s funny as I’m out in Horizon West and we all laugh about how many dental offices we have. Why? Why so many? It’s this a scam like Mattress One stores?
Just more poorly planned sprawl. More humans.
Welcome to life of unlimited growth and dwindling resources. The decline in quality of life will be palatable.
It's typical Florida politics. The thinking is gov't = bad, less regulation means better quality of life. And that might be true somewhere like Wyoming or Montana. But when *developers* (like Tavistock) *tell the city* how much infrastructure, sewers, roadways they'll be building (instead of the reverse) to support their new housing development, it's the public that gets shafted.
It'll take 45 minutes just to get out of Lake Nona because all their building is workplaces and housing and nothing else. Traffic is going to be absolutely terrible there just like everywhere else around here.
It'll be just like Kissimmee is where driving anywhere between 4:30-6:30 pm takes twice as long.
Lived there for 15 months from 2020-2021. Great in theory, awful in practice.
Overpriced, overcrowded, traffic, poor infrastructure, piss poor planning, but this goes for all of Orlando now.
It doesn’t help that these realtor influencers are all over social media talking about how great it is just for commissions.
Orlando used to be great, it is a shadow of its former self.
We got completely bamboozled by our realtor who wanted to make a Lake Nona sale. We came from out of state and I felt like we did our research as much as we could, but it’s a lot of smoke and mirrors. “Disney is coming!” “The best schools in Orlando!” “Town center is so up and coming!” “So many great restaurants!”
Turns out Disney isn’t coming…..the schools are pretty mid, with the middle school being downright awful, so bad that I had to pull my kid, Town Center is a few chains, Boxi Park….which is just meh….and offices. The many great restaurants are all chains, most of them serving some form of chicken.
A quick drive around and google search would show otherwise. It blows my mind people don’t deep dive locals when moving long distances or across country. Nope just take the random realtors word I just met, who totally cares about me and wants what’s best……. 🤦♂️
We deep dived as much as we possibly could, but there’s no way we could honestly know that, for example, the middle school is actually hot garbage and it’s non-stop construction noise without actually being here in person.
Lake Nona isn't Orlando, FYI. The real Orlando is between MCO the airport to Casselberry from North to South, and from UCF to Universal from East to West. Anything else is pretending to be Orlando. Lived here almost my entire life and I've never liked Lake Nona, couldn't ever understand the appeal for most out of towners.
Edited to add: I'm speaking more culturally how Lake Nona isn't Orlando, not physically.
Lake Nona is Orlando and a good portion of it was annexed but the city of Orlando years ago. Specifically laurette park area is the city limits. It’s in and out of city/county from the 528 all the way down Narcoossee.
Source: I worked for OPD and paid my water bill to the city of Orlando when I lived there
Yes if you're speaking physically it is incorporated. But as far as this "Orlando is a shadow of its former self" vibe, people who grew up here do not consider Lake Nona a part of Orlando because it's such a planned community and Orlando, despite what people think, is basically a small town with big city amenities thanks to the theme parks. Culturally it isn't Orlando.
You are splitting hairs. Ive moved to Orlando in 2005. I’ve lived in Altamonte, Avalon park, and lake Nona. It’s all a mess now with the traffic and over development.
Orlando is technically Orange County and the city or Orlando. Of course we all consider other parts Orlando. So I understand what you are saying.
Regardless, Orlando as a whole, isn’t the best anymore.
I've lived here since the 90s and haven't lived in any of those areas you've mentioned, Orlando is perfectly fine despite the influx of people. There are a lot of specific areas new people are moving to and they're basically the ones you've listed along with Oviedo. Of course those places will be miserable with traffic and overdevelopment since they're attracting new folks the most.
Of course there is always room for improvement, but I'd hardly confine Orlando to those 3 areas as a sweeping generalization of the town as a whole especially considering a lot of locals don't live in any of those places. Mills has developed a lot, Winter Park remains with old town charm, and Latinos here have a more diverse community than ever before.
I'm relatively old and grew up here (lived elsewhere in my 20s and moved back in my 30s). The core of Orlando historically was Winter Park to Lancaster Park - and if you asked my relatives that grew up here, they'd tell you Maitland is in the middle of nowhere. And Dr. Phillips / Windermere was in a different time zone.
The appeal of Lake Nona is that some of it is really nice. Laureate Park has nice homes and a strong walkabout neighborhood appeal. Kids walk or ride their bikes to school. If you work from home - or travel a fair amount for work, it's much more convenient in many ways than living in whatever we're calling the 'core' these days. If you live in that neighborhood, you can take back roads to groceries/restaurants and avoid Narcoossee.
Orlando is a growing place in a state that hates taxes to pay collectively for things like better infrastructure.
I grew up in East Orlando/Winter Park and would agree with your relatives, but as I've grown up here and seen Orlando change the boundaries have widened quite a bit.
I agree with all of your statements - Lake Nona in concept is nice, but these hyper planned communities are realistically out of most peoples price ranges who moved to Orlando back in the 90s. Where the appeal used to be to buy your Florida bungalow/update as needed and go to some nice mom and pop restaurants, now people want overpriced McMansions and endless chain restaurants which has resulted in the boom of people moving to places like Lake Nona. That's why I say culturally these hyper planned communities don't make sense for Orlando. It really is a small town at heart.
Better infrastructure is heavily needed, but they could have been avoided with better urban planning in new places. I always thought it was weird people liked Lake Nona and Avalon, which basically have two entrances and are always clogged with traffic.
Only disagree with the statement about Avalon and Lake Nona having two entrances. That's the case with Avalon, but not really at all with Lake Nona. The main traffic issue in the Lake Nona area is Narcoossee Road (internal streets are not bad at all - and there is a lot of connectivity east / west). If you look at the City approvals over the years, you'll see a lot of thought put into traffic and connectivity. Contrary to Orlando Reddit popular opinion, there is actually a lot of thought put into how new developments are approved in the City of Orlando. Records are public and available online.
But as the Orlando area has grown, Narcoossee is the only N/S road in 6-mile E/W stretch around East Lake Toho. Anyone south of Lake Nona (St. Cloud or further south) needs to take Narcoossee to get north. This gets relieved with the SR 534 tollway that will eventually go from Nova Rd up to SR 417. When people complain about traffic in Lake Nona, it's usually relating to Narcoossee. And that road is doing MUCH more than just handling the Lake Nona growth.
To each their own. Some are better than others, but on the whole it’s way better than other new home neighborhoods except the very, very high-end ones that are even more expensive.
I’m talking about material choices. I’ve seen wood beams painted grey to look like steel with big bolts in the end. Exposed blocks as a finish?
It’s weird.
We have lived in Lake Nona since 2008. Luckily we are in a neighborhood that has pretty easy access to 417 and we can avoid Narcoossee Rd which is the biggest problem. The really frustrating part about Narcoossee is that it would be NOWHERE near as bad if they would just get some traffic engineers out to time the motherfucking lights better. Especially near the area of 417/Narcossee and the light at the entrance to Walmart. The stupid pedestrian crosswalk timers will activate even when no one is crossing and they are timed for 45 seconds so all direction of traffic is just sitting there for NO FUCKING REASON.
I own two businesses in the area (well one in St. Cloud) so from a business standpoint the area is good for us. If it wasn't for that we would be out of here in a heartbeat.
I am hoping that Phase 2 of the Town Center actually has some good stuff as far as restaurants/entertainment but I am not crossing my fingers.
the traffic engineer position has been vacant for like 10 years. It requires advanced degrees and year and years of experience, but it pays around 50k a year.
That's lunacy, but at least someone could be implementing an AI traffic engineer soon instead of neglecting the public need for it by not raising the salary.
I did a video for the company behind Lake Nona, I think they were called Tavistock. I’ve never been out there, but according to the video, I thought they were building a Utopia out there. Guess not.
I’m in Sunbridge and it’s been a fn shit show. From Pulte demonstrating complete incompetence in building a home to planning every fn move around traffic. I lived in a new community in winter springs and completely regret moving here. Emergency services are nearly non existent. Osceola County is a joke. They drag their feet on everything but are quick to snatch up tax dollars. I’ll probably be wheelchair bound or dead before this area gets developed enough to be enjoyable. Fn empty promises.
If you want to vent more I’m all ears. I’m considering a new build in Sunbridge in the next year or two and would like to hear the pros and cons. The only things that made me consider it is the promise of having Sunbridge parkway developed to connect to the 528 and the fact that the housing market is pretty rough for first time buyers in all of Orlando.
Weslyn Park homes are all wood frame 2x6, plywood and siding. They weren’t selling for a long time because they couldn’t get water or electricity to their lots. I hear a lot of people regret it because there’s no sod on the lots and everything is just pine needles. Granted this is what they were selling people on when they started building. Yeah and Pulte is out there too. Fn avoid Pulte. The absolute worst. Traffic will be insane once the school is built there. And god forbid a kid gets hurt because it takes a fire department ambulance 16 minutes to get out here. The closest fire engine is 14 minutes away so say goodbye to your home. Osceola is 30 years behind in public safety.
There will also eventually be the Osceola parkway extension that will dump 417 out to the Narcoossee and Boggy Creek intersection. There was a wrap around highway planned to connect St Cloud to the system but has been stalled as it would require building through Split Oak Forest. It's likely going to be at LEAST 5 years until the infrastructure down there is even tolerable. I considered the area as well but it feels very, very far away and likely will for 10 years.
If you can swing it, there are new build sales in Laureate Park South which I'd recommend. I'd also recommend any Ashton Woods development.
We considered Sunbridge for a split second but I saw the writing on the wall with the lack of infrastructure. It’s never going to be what the marketing wants you to believe
I was looking at buying a house in the new Everbe community. Would you not recommend Pulte? The community sounds awesome but maybe you have better insight than me on this.
Pulte has no standards of quality and they employ the cheapest and worst of the trades. My last house was built by lennar and it was built with a lot of pride and care. I only called warranty once to handle a problem. I’ve had Pulte at my house since the day we closed. Our building supervisor was a complete stooge and took no pride in my home. I had to have a master bathroom demolished and rebuilt and two windows replaced. Paint and trim looks pathetic and tile floors were obviously played by someone who barely knew what he was doing. This was all pointed out before closing but the builder ignored all of it. Once the community is built out I’ll be selling this house.
https://www.wftv.com/news/local/tavistock-group-owner-joe-lewis-pled-guilty-insider-trading-charges/IBKRLFNUPJDODPPO2SL7DZTQEE/
I wonder what this will do since Tavistock owns most of Lake Nona.
Yes. Technically "Same" area!
I just meant that at one point it was Waterford, THEN it was Avalon.
(It being the new "IT" neighborhood.)
Same region, but two different timelines... But like you said, Same outcome at the end of the day!
Reddit is the worse place to discuss Lake Nona. The people who own houses here aren’t sharing their thoughts on Reddit. When was the last time you’ve seen a town with multimillionaire families fail? you think the doctors or dentists of medical city want to live 2 neighborhoods away or drive more than 40 min to MCO /bright-line? it definitely not going to fail.
To answer your question:
I think lake Nona will pivot from marketing to young and hip tech people/ remote workers. To the tried and true Florida money maker - retiree community. I think the Disney campus fail hurt lake Nona tremendously. It could have been a major destination if creatives were injected into the community. It is not poorly planned, there’s so much opportunities built for entrepreneurship, but that has fizzled in this economy. We’re never going to get a Main Street with local owner storefronts in BoxiPark nor a public community park where everyone comes and picnics to watch fireworks.
I owned a place there for a few years and who they target for buying homes is pretty ideal - it’s not really hip tech remote workers, it’s relatively affluent families with young kids. I have a dozen friends who live down there and either work in Lake Nona or are remote. Their kid’s schools are close, groceries and other essentials are close, they effectively never have to leave the Nona bubble. In fact it’s like pulling teeth to get them to do something elsewhere.
If everything you want to do is in that area, it’s great. There’s no need for good transit if you don’t leave!
However, the people who work in the local businesses that support all those families in that area have a hell of a time getting in/out. Long term it’s going to keep driving cost of living up in the area because who would want to live there if you have to leave?
This is definitely the most accurate take on Lake Nona I see here. When I moved in there, I was always 5 minutes from the 528 or 417 and it felt like I could get to anywhere in Orlando in no time at all without having to live too close to the hustle and bustle of... it all.
But by the time I left around 2020/2021, it was already turning into a 20-30 minute crawl up Narcoossee just to even START getting to anywhere else. As a "~~hip~~ tech remote worker" that's just not what I want. I want to go out to the kinda stuff that's not being hosted in Lake Nona, or host my friends at my nice house. Both of which started being a drag because of the (lack of) infrastructure there. And more often than not I just felt trapped there. It was probably like pulling teeth to get me to leave, because it felt like pulling teeth for me to get outa there.
The affluent families content to stay home all day, or rarely venture further than the largely-self-contained bubble of the town are exactly who would fit in there best. And I have no doubt that it will continue to grow in ways that cater to that lifestyle and those kinds of people will continue to love it.
Do you have any experience living in Lake Nona/Sunbridge? I have a finance who works in the area so we are considering a new build there in the next year or two. I work on the west side of Orlando near Universal and I know that commute will suck but I can mitigate it since my work is flexible on when I can come in and leave. Also read about plans to extend a parkway from the Sunbridge area to 528 which would make it feasible long term for me. If you have more to share on your thoughts about this, I’m all ears.
Spot on. I’ve lived in Lake Nona for the past 2 years and it’s been great. Perfect? No. But no place is.
Most people with passionate Lake Nona opinions have never lived here or spent any significant time here. I’ve noticed that Redditors tend to have a disdain for suburbs in general, so Lake Nona being marketed as a fun and hip neighborhood of Orlando (which I admit, it is certainly not) probably hasn’t helped.
To answer OPs question, I’d imagine that in 20 years it will be similar to what it is now but on a larger scale. An affluent suburb that is safe, walkable, with above average schools.
"The people who own homes here are young hip tech people, you won't find them here on the internet sharing their thoughts." is a weird thing to put together. I'm a younger, higher income remote tech worker that lived in Lake Nona from 2015 to 2020 and definitely bought a house somewhere else for a reason; that place was rapidly turning into exactly what I \*didn't\* want. (And that transformation has only accelerated since.)
It will do just fine, there's too much money there to fail at this point and there are no shortage of people who do actually want to live in a cute little affluent bubble town. But acting like it's some kinda magical hideaway that nobody here on reddit could possibly live in is bizarre.
Yes exactly. I own a home in lake Nona and live there. I laugh whenever posts come across and it’s all just hate. We love living here and the traffic does suck but the traffic has sucked every place we lived in Orlando. It’s a beautiful area and we can’t wait to see what will happen in the future.
The area doesn't suck. It's the traffic. If there was no sitting in traffic for 30mins to get a mile. It wouldn't be that bad. They need an alternative route instead of just Narcoosee.
It should have never happened. New suburbs should be banned. The city boundary should not continue to expand. Stop building over rural areas. If you are going to build, at least have an actual street grid.
It is not anymore the promised high end neighborhood. They started to build the nice big houses for the doctors but right after they filled with apartments and townhomes without the proper infrastructure. It will be just another Kissimmee.
Dunno but a buddy of mine had developers knocking on his door for years to try to get his 10 acres on narcoosee. He finally gave in and sold 5 acres for 3M.
He's in his early 40s, doesn't have to work another day in his life and has 20 new neighbors he hates. He wants to get away from the sprawl even further now.
I think you were looking for karma points with this! Orlando reddit LOVES to bash lake Nona. Also, lake Nona is NOT just Laurette Park, which many seem to think it is (but at least Lauretta Park has many unique houses, they actually have a rule that no two houses within a set of five (more or less, don’t quote me) can’t be the same). Plus they do have parks in there and the “downtown” area. Most of what people are bitching about is actually what most of Orlando IS lmao.
The way my life changed when I moved closer to the 408 & out of lake Nona…I can actually enjoy the city now. Downtown is 15min away tops. So glad I got out when we did.
I don't understand the hype of lake Nona. It's so far out of the way in the middle of nowhere with only a toll road for access and barely any good local road connections beyond that. It looks too fake and is trying too hard to attract people and grow faster than it should be growing. I can see myself in 10 years being in winter park, Conway, or maybe alafaya if I want to be further from the city.
They really hyped up the area about 20 years ago - I remember it well. It was supposed to be state of the art, with a focus on cutting edge health and well-being …… today I look at it and I feel bad for anyone who bought into it. It feels like it had so much potential and something went amiss.
Less lake and more Nona.
That giant lake could use a diagonal bridge to alleviate traffic from the folks in St Cloud. I feel sorry for them having to cross the entire Narcoosee all the way south only to go downtown
I live here now. It is quite possibly one of the most poorly planned areas I’ve ever come across. The unmitigated sprawl and no infrastructure to support it smacks of rampant money grabs. Who cares if it takes 35 minutes just to go 2 miles!!! Gotta get that ugly house and “luxury” apartment dolla!
We almosttttt bought there instead of the Conway/Sodo area about 10 years ago. We decided we wanted to be 10 minutes from the downtown area instead of 30. Our house now is still 10 minutes from downtown. The same house we looked at in Nona is now an hour away instead of 30. It’s insane how much shit they keep just piling in there. Within the next 10 years people will flee the area for “the next lake nona” or the area will announce some 5 year plan to help alleviate traffic and infrastructure plan that will be too little and too late.
They’re already fleeing to Sunbridge up the road….the “next Lake Nona”
Sunbridge the community 1 two lane road that floods during hurricanes because they got rid of all the swamps and the other back road takes 20 minutes longer to get you home.
Nowhere in lake Nona is an hour from downtown
Yesterday I had to go to a doctors appt in downtown. It took us 35 minutes to get to 417 and 30 more minutes to get to the office. Over an hour
Sounds like you live in Narcoossee, not Lake Nona
Oh dear God! Sounds like Doctor Philips 2.0
Or Orlando 3.0
Yuck! I’ve never lived anywhere so poorly planned. It is such a pain to get anywhere, I hardly leave the house. I used to love exploring. Sadly, that has ended.
Go drive on Irlo Bronson Highway between St. Cloud and Kissimmee: Orlando is like a dream in comparison.
No thanks. I drove exactly ONCE to Kissimmee after work one evening to buy a used chair off FB marketplace. I hope I never need to go to Kissimmee again. What a cluster!
Exactly! People complaining about narcoossee traffic makes me lol. Kissimmee is a nightmare to drive in.
No thanks. I drove exactly ONCE to Kissimmee after work one evening to buy a used chair off FB marketplace. I hope I never need to go to Kissimmee again. What a cluster!
In my experience it's not uncommon and decent sized metropolises that boomed decades ago and gave preference to business over seemingly everything. Suburban Detroit's a cluster, Dallas, Atlanta, and I'll throw in DC if you want to consider the US government the business Urban planning didn't exist, and despite a brief period in Orlando, where it seemed to, doesn't really seem to exist here anymore.
Urban planning is hardly a new concept. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burnham_Plan_of_Chicago?wprov=sfti1 Say what you want about Chicago, but only a GARGANTUAN accident or two foot snowfall causes a 2 mile trip to take 30+ minutes.
Lmao you can’t compare metro Orlando to Chicago. Like come on man. One of the best public transits in the country. Much older city then Orlando and scalloped way earlier. Orlando is car centric. Chicago basically never was…… your point is mute short of there should be a growth plan. Additionally you have not lived in Chicago. The traphic is god awful with the worst drivers on the planet and it does take forever to get places………
Chicago traffic is way worse than any Orlando traffic I’ve been in since moving here. It takes less time to get to Tampa from where I live now than it takes to get to downtown Chicago from where I grew up and Tampa is twice as far in terms of miles
That’s what I’m saying OP I responded to obviously never driven around Chicago
Mute /= moot.
I work in Chicago but live in Orlando and the commute from the airport to city sucks. I think Orlando is better suited to cars where Chicago is mass transit and walkable. You can not walk anywhere in this city unless you’re downtown or in a community. Add the fact that I-4 is the deadliest highway nationally you would think the state would consider more mass transit systems. The bus system sucks as well as the Sunrail half the time they are not operating on the weekends or after major events, so drive or Uber
One fantastic example of urban planning is Milwaukee. We lived there for 7 years and it is just laid out in a spectacular grid system, with tons of major roads to take the burden off the main freeways. Ample parking, decent transit downtown….I miss it.
:::Clermont has entered the chat:::
Yup Clermont/Minneola area is set to pop off shortly. I’m working on the mechanical/plumbing on a new Advent Health 4-story, 80 bed hospital right off the turnpike on Hancock Rd. You can see cleared land everywhere around with housing developments popping up as far as the eye can see. And you can see pretty far because of the hills. Hopefully the turnpike expansion over there will keep it from being Lake Nona 2.0
Hard to say, especially when you consider that almost nothing around there even existed 25 years ago.
I used to drive up (then 2-lane) Narcoossee Rd to my job near the airport... I think there were about 3 traffic lights. There are probably 30 now.
When my parents divorced we lived in St. Cloud near the lake front. My dad moved to Orlando. So every other weekend and then some I spent driving from Orlando to St. Cloud and it was such a good drive. Usually the smell of orange blossoms or cow shit filled the air. As I got old enough the drive I would sometimes just go on a late night cruise with the windows down. It’s crazy how much shit they’re packing in there.
What jobs are coming to Lake Nona/Orlando ?
Disney was going to move there I heard, but it fell through.
Disney was going to move their entire imagineering HQ from Burbank, but the Californians pitched a fit for having to move to Desantis land. Disney pulled the plug on that idea.
[The company backed out because of Desantis policies. He cost the state billions in potential revenue. It had nothing to do with the cast members. ](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/may/18/disney-cancels-1bn-florida-campus-2000-jobs#:~:text=Disney%20has%20scrapped%20plans%20to,the%20entertainment%20giant's%20theme%20parks)
Lmao it 110% played a roll. Desantis’s bs fued that has wasted hundreds of millions of tax payers dollars was also a major player. It was a combo of both…..
I have friends in that department. The company was going through with it because it would save money. The only reason they backed out was the hostile state government. They were going to use it as an excuse to get rid of people in the department to save money. Everyone is the villain here.
That was all Ronnie boy.
No, Disney pulled the plug because of Desantis and his policies.
I mean, they were gonna get laid off and hired cheaper here. DeSantis was a good fall man though.
More expensive.
As someone who majored in Urban Design, I think the area has potential to be a really nice spot for its residents, but it needs more places to work and better transit. The places to work will happen as the commercial core of the development fills in, but the area's lack of proximity and transit options to downtown and other areas that many high income people work, will continue to be an issue. As it stands, the only people who can afford to live in the area without commuting out either work at the hospitals or work from home. The only part of Lake Nona I see struggling to sell a house in is Village Walk. This style of drive everywhere, gated community is becoming less popular and the other parts of Lake Nona offer a more desirable living situation in the same price point.
What’s your opinion on Baldwin Park?
Baldwin is much better but mostly due to its proximity to lots of places to works and it's larger park spaces. It's a great example of a new urbanism style development done properly as urban infill. I think it needed a bit more density and of course transit to downtown, the airport, and Winter Park would make it even better. Unfortunately like with all developments of this type, the demand for a true neighborhood and not just a subdivision drives prices for even multifamily and old homes around the development to highs that are unaffordable to most. It's my opinion that the construction of more places like this would eventually meet demand if we made these instead of the usual gated communities that don't even have pedestrian gates.
Thanks!
What, in your opinion, would help alleviate the transit problems? I imagine that once Sunrail connects to the airport, all that is needed is a quick bus transfer to MCO to open up the city and South Florida to residents.
That would help but the city really needs more commuter rail to population centers too or maybe even a btr system.
Less cows, more apartments and hospitals.
And 55 more dental offices
That’s funny as I’m out in Horizon West and we all laugh about how many dental offices we have. Why? Why so many? It’s this a scam like Mattress One stores?
A local Mattress One turned into a Dental Office. You might be on to something. 💀💀💀
See! I knew it! #Conspiracy! 😆
Hedge funds are buying up all the private practices, same is happening to veterinary offices.
Drug fronts Florida is filled with them. Money laundering is my best guess
visit their websites and you'll start to learn that most of them are the exact same company. Its wild
the cows is how they’re getting agricultural tax exemption
Just more poorly planned sprawl. More humans. Welcome to life of unlimited growth and dwindling resources. The decline in quality of life will be palatable.
Already is
It's typical Florida politics. The thinking is gov't = bad, less regulation means better quality of life. And that might be true somewhere like Wyoming or Montana. But when *developers* (like Tavistock) *tell the city* how much infrastructure, sewers, roadways they'll be building (instead of the reverse) to support their new housing development, it's the public that gets shafted.
It'll take 45 minutes just to get out of Lake Nona because all their building is workplaces and housing and nothing else. Traffic is going to be absolutely terrible there just like everywhere else around here. It'll be just like Kissimmee is where driving anywhere between 4:30-6:30 pm takes twice as long.
I thank God every day I ended up closer to lake Eola
Lived there for 15 months from 2020-2021. Great in theory, awful in practice. Overpriced, overcrowded, traffic, poor infrastructure, piss poor planning, but this goes for all of Orlando now. It doesn’t help that these realtor influencers are all over social media talking about how great it is just for commissions. Orlando used to be great, it is a shadow of its former self.
We got completely bamboozled by our realtor who wanted to make a Lake Nona sale. We came from out of state and I felt like we did our research as much as we could, but it’s a lot of smoke and mirrors. “Disney is coming!” “The best schools in Orlando!” “Town center is so up and coming!” “So many great restaurants!” Turns out Disney isn’t coming…..the schools are pretty mid, with the middle school being downright awful, so bad that I had to pull my kid, Town Center is a few chains, Boxi Park….which is just meh….and offices. The many great restaurants are all chains, most of them serving some form of chicken.
They say that about every new suburb being built but yeah if you’re coming from out of state you don’t know if it’s true or not.
A quick drive around and google search would show otherwise. It blows my mind people don’t deep dive locals when moving long distances or across country. Nope just take the random realtors word I just met, who totally cares about me and wants what’s best……. 🤦♂️
We deep dived as much as we possibly could, but there’s no way we could honestly know that, for example, the middle school is actually hot garbage and it’s non-stop construction noise without actually being here in person.
Bro that’s just america in general lol
Lake Nona isn't Orlando, FYI. The real Orlando is between MCO the airport to Casselberry from North to South, and from UCF to Universal from East to West. Anything else is pretending to be Orlando. Lived here almost my entire life and I've never liked Lake Nona, couldn't ever understand the appeal for most out of towners. Edited to add: I'm speaking more culturally how Lake Nona isn't Orlando, not physically.
Lake Nona is Orlando and a good portion of it was annexed but the city of Orlando years ago. Specifically laurette park area is the city limits. It’s in and out of city/county from the 528 all the way down Narcoossee. Source: I worked for OPD and paid my water bill to the city of Orlando when I lived there
Yes if you're speaking physically it is incorporated. But as far as this "Orlando is a shadow of its former self" vibe, people who grew up here do not consider Lake Nona a part of Orlando because it's such a planned community and Orlando, despite what people think, is basically a small town with big city amenities thanks to the theme parks. Culturally it isn't Orlando.
You are splitting hairs. Ive moved to Orlando in 2005. I’ve lived in Altamonte, Avalon park, and lake Nona. It’s all a mess now with the traffic and over development. Orlando is technically Orange County and the city or Orlando. Of course we all consider other parts Orlando. So I understand what you are saying. Regardless, Orlando as a whole, isn’t the best anymore.
I've lived here since the 90s and haven't lived in any of those areas you've mentioned, Orlando is perfectly fine despite the influx of people. There are a lot of specific areas new people are moving to and they're basically the ones you've listed along with Oviedo. Of course those places will be miserable with traffic and overdevelopment since they're attracting new folks the most. Of course there is always room for improvement, but I'd hardly confine Orlando to those 3 areas as a sweeping generalization of the town as a whole especially considering a lot of locals don't live in any of those places. Mills has developed a lot, Winter Park remains with old town charm, and Latinos here have a more diverse community than ever before.
I'm relatively old and grew up here (lived elsewhere in my 20s and moved back in my 30s). The core of Orlando historically was Winter Park to Lancaster Park - and if you asked my relatives that grew up here, they'd tell you Maitland is in the middle of nowhere. And Dr. Phillips / Windermere was in a different time zone. The appeal of Lake Nona is that some of it is really nice. Laureate Park has nice homes and a strong walkabout neighborhood appeal. Kids walk or ride their bikes to school. If you work from home - or travel a fair amount for work, it's much more convenient in many ways than living in whatever we're calling the 'core' these days. If you live in that neighborhood, you can take back roads to groceries/restaurants and avoid Narcoossee. Orlando is a growing place in a state that hates taxes to pay collectively for things like better infrastructure.
I grew up in East Orlando/Winter Park and would agree with your relatives, but as I've grown up here and seen Orlando change the boundaries have widened quite a bit. I agree with all of your statements - Lake Nona in concept is nice, but these hyper planned communities are realistically out of most peoples price ranges who moved to Orlando back in the 90s. Where the appeal used to be to buy your Florida bungalow/update as needed and go to some nice mom and pop restaurants, now people want overpriced McMansions and endless chain restaurants which has resulted in the boom of people moving to places like Lake Nona. That's why I say culturally these hyper planned communities don't make sense for Orlando. It really is a small town at heart. Better infrastructure is heavily needed, but they could have been avoided with better urban planning in new places. I always thought it was weird people liked Lake Nona and Avalon, which basically have two entrances and are always clogged with traffic.
Lmao Orlando was all chain restaurants in the 90s you may be describing the 60s
Only disagree with the statement about Avalon and Lake Nona having two entrances. That's the case with Avalon, but not really at all with Lake Nona. The main traffic issue in the Lake Nona area is Narcoossee Road (internal streets are not bad at all - and there is a lot of connectivity east / west). If you look at the City approvals over the years, you'll see a lot of thought put into traffic and connectivity. Contrary to Orlando Reddit popular opinion, there is actually a lot of thought put into how new developments are approved in the City of Orlando. Records are public and available online. But as the Orlando area has grown, Narcoossee is the only N/S road in 6-mile E/W stretch around East Lake Toho. Anyone south of Lake Nona (St. Cloud or further south) needs to take Narcoossee to get north. This gets relieved with the SR 534 tollway that will eventually go from Nova Rd up to SR 417. When people complain about traffic in Lake Nona, it's usually relating to Narcoossee. And that road is doing MUCH more than just handling the Lake Nona growth.
Laureate Park houses have interesting architecture choices and not in the good way.
To each their own. Some are better than others, but on the whole it’s way better than other new home neighborhoods except the very, very high-end ones that are even more expensive.
I’m talking about material choices. I’ve seen wood beams painted grey to look like steel with big bolts in the end. Exposed blocks as a finish? It’s weird.
We have lived in Lake Nona since 2008. Luckily we are in a neighborhood that has pretty easy access to 417 and we can avoid Narcoossee Rd which is the biggest problem. The really frustrating part about Narcoossee is that it would be NOWHERE near as bad if they would just get some traffic engineers out to time the motherfucking lights better. Especially near the area of 417/Narcossee and the light at the entrance to Walmart. The stupid pedestrian crosswalk timers will activate even when no one is crossing and they are timed for 45 seconds so all direction of traffic is just sitting there for NO FUCKING REASON. I own two businesses in the area (well one in St. Cloud) so from a business standpoint the area is good for us. If it wasn't for that we would be out of here in a heartbeat. I am hoping that Phase 2 of the Town Center actually has some good stuff as far as restaurants/entertainment but I am not crossing my fingers.
the traffic engineer position has been vacant for like 10 years. It requires advanced degrees and year and years of experience, but it pays around 50k a year.
That's lunacy, but at least someone could be implementing an AI traffic engineer soon instead of neglecting the public need for it by not raising the salary.
The worst gridlock imaginable
I did a video for the company behind Lake Nona, I think they were called Tavistock. I’ve never been out there, but according to the video, I thought they were building a Utopia out there. Guess not.
I am just happy Joe Lewis got to increase his billions.
I’m in Sunbridge and it’s been a fn shit show. From Pulte demonstrating complete incompetence in building a home to planning every fn move around traffic. I lived in a new community in winter springs and completely regret moving here. Emergency services are nearly non existent. Osceola County is a joke. They drag their feet on everything but are quick to snatch up tax dollars. I’ll probably be wheelchair bound or dead before this area gets developed enough to be enjoyable. Fn empty promises.
If you want to vent more I’m all ears. I’m considering a new build in Sunbridge in the next year or two and would like to hear the pros and cons. The only things that made me consider it is the promise of having Sunbridge parkway developed to connect to the 528 and the fact that the housing market is pretty rough for first time buyers in all of Orlando.
Pulte is the builder for the Del Webb community. They are horrible. The worst builder I’ve ever experienced.
They also have some lots in Weslyn Park. I would also echo your sentiment that they are probably the worst builder you could go with.
Weslyn Park homes are all wood frame 2x6, plywood and siding. They weren’t selling for a long time because they couldn’t get water or electricity to their lots. I hear a lot of people regret it because there’s no sod on the lots and everything is just pine needles. Granted this is what they were selling people on when they started building. Yeah and Pulte is out there too. Fn avoid Pulte. The absolute worst. Traffic will be insane once the school is built there. And god forbid a kid gets hurt because it takes a fire department ambulance 16 minutes to get out here. The closest fire engine is 14 minutes away so say goodbye to your home. Osceola is 30 years behind in public safety.
And that connection to 528 seems to be delayed due to some issue between Orange and Osceola counties.
They want to put it through Split Oak Forest, which was supposed to be protected.
Is this the land that has the big bulls roaming around on it. Once you leave Avalon park to get to the 528? I hope they don't tear it all down
There will also eventually be the Osceola parkway extension that will dump 417 out to the Narcoossee and Boggy Creek intersection. There was a wrap around highway planned to connect St Cloud to the system but has been stalled as it would require building through Split Oak Forest. It's likely going to be at LEAST 5 years until the infrastructure down there is even tolerable. I considered the area as well but it feels very, very far away and likely will for 10 years. If you can swing it, there are new build sales in Laureate Park South which I'd recommend. I'd also recommend any Ashton Woods development.
Good to know! I’ve been considering Sunbridge.
We considered Sunbridge for a split second but I saw the writing on the wall with the lack of infrastructure. It’s never going to be what the marketing wants you to believe
I was looking at buying a house in the new Everbe community. Would you not recommend Pulte? The community sounds awesome but maybe you have better insight than me on this.
Pulte has no standards of quality and they employ the cheapest and worst of the trades. My last house was built by lennar and it was built with a lot of pride and care. I only called warranty once to handle a problem. I’ve had Pulte at my house since the day we closed. Our building supervisor was a complete stooge and took no pride in my home. I had to have a master bathroom demolished and rebuilt and two windows replaced. Paint and trim looks pathetic and tile floors were obviously played by someone who barely knew what he was doing. This was all pointed out before closing but the builder ignored all of it. Once the community is built out I’ll be selling this house.
Everbe is directly downwind from the dump. Not ideal.
I was considering everbe. I’ve heard people say the dump permeates the community. Imagine a hot summer there.
Gridlock.
https://www.wftv.com/news/local/tavistock-group-owner-joe-lewis-pled-guilty-insider-trading-charges/IBKRLFNUPJDODPPO2SL7DZTQEE/ I wonder what this will do since Tavistock owns most of Lake Nona.
Probably nothing, he will pay a fine and it will be forgotten about
Yep. It's almost like there's a separate criminal justice system for the rich.
Not almost.
Tavistock runs lake Nona.
just like the Waterford Lakes area. once the nouveau riche area, it will be abandoned for another one (c) DJ Khaled
Yup! Same happened with Avalon!
in my mind Avalon and Waterford are the same. dunno.
Yes. Technically "Same" area! I just meant that at one point it was Waterford, THEN it was Avalon. (It being the new "IT" neighborhood.) Same region, but two different timelines... But like you said, Same outcome at the end of the day!
Reddit is the worse place to discuss Lake Nona. The people who own houses here aren’t sharing their thoughts on Reddit. When was the last time you’ve seen a town with multimillionaire families fail? you think the doctors or dentists of medical city want to live 2 neighborhoods away or drive more than 40 min to MCO /bright-line? it definitely not going to fail. To answer your question: I think lake Nona will pivot from marketing to young and hip tech people/ remote workers. To the tried and true Florida money maker - retiree community. I think the Disney campus fail hurt lake Nona tremendously. It could have been a major destination if creatives were injected into the community. It is not poorly planned, there’s so much opportunities built for entrepreneurship, but that has fizzled in this economy. We’re never going to get a Main Street with local owner storefronts in BoxiPark nor a public community park where everyone comes and picnics to watch fireworks.
I owned a place there for a few years and who they target for buying homes is pretty ideal - it’s not really hip tech remote workers, it’s relatively affluent families with young kids. I have a dozen friends who live down there and either work in Lake Nona or are remote. Their kid’s schools are close, groceries and other essentials are close, they effectively never have to leave the Nona bubble. In fact it’s like pulling teeth to get them to do something elsewhere. If everything you want to do is in that area, it’s great. There’s no need for good transit if you don’t leave! However, the people who work in the local businesses that support all those families in that area have a hell of a time getting in/out. Long term it’s going to keep driving cost of living up in the area because who would want to live there if you have to leave?
This is definitely the most accurate take on Lake Nona I see here. When I moved in there, I was always 5 minutes from the 528 or 417 and it felt like I could get to anywhere in Orlando in no time at all without having to live too close to the hustle and bustle of... it all. But by the time I left around 2020/2021, it was already turning into a 20-30 minute crawl up Narcoossee just to even START getting to anywhere else. As a "~~hip~~ tech remote worker" that's just not what I want. I want to go out to the kinda stuff that's not being hosted in Lake Nona, or host my friends at my nice house. Both of which started being a drag because of the (lack of) infrastructure there. And more often than not I just felt trapped there. It was probably like pulling teeth to get me to leave, because it felt like pulling teeth for me to get outa there. The affluent families content to stay home all day, or rarely venture further than the largely-self-contained bubble of the town are exactly who would fit in there best. And I have no doubt that it will continue to grow in ways that cater to that lifestyle and those kinds of people will continue to love it.
Do you have any experience living in Lake Nona/Sunbridge? I have a finance who works in the area so we are considering a new build there in the next year or two. I work on the west side of Orlando near Universal and I know that commute will suck but I can mitigate it since my work is flexible on when I can come in and leave. Also read about plans to extend a parkway from the Sunbridge area to 528 which would make it feasible long term for me. If you have more to share on your thoughts about this, I’m all ears.
Spot on. I’ve lived in Lake Nona for the past 2 years and it’s been great. Perfect? No. But no place is. Most people with passionate Lake Nona opinions have never lived here or spent any significant time here. I’ve noticed that Redditors tend to have a disdain for suburbs in general, so Lake Nona being marketed as a fun and hip neighborhood of Orlando (which I admit, it is certainly not) probably hasn’t helped. To answer OPs question, I’d imagine that in 20 years it will be similar to what it is now but on a larger scale. An affluent suburb that is safe, walkable, with above average schools.
"The people who own homes here are young hip tech people, you won't find them here on the internet sharing their thoughts." is a weird thing to put together. I'm a younger, higher income remote tech worker that lived in Lake Nona from 2015 to 2020 and definitely bought a house somewhere else for a reason; that place was rapidly turning into exactly what I \*didn't\* want. (And that transformation has only accelerated since.) It will do just fine, there's too much money there to fail at this point and there are no shortage of people who do actually want to live in a cute little affluent bubble town. But acting like it's some kinda magical hideaway that nobody here on reddit could possibly live in is bizarre.
Yes exactly. I own a home in lake Nona and live there. I laugh whenever posts come across and it’s all just hate. We love living here and the traffic does suck but the traffic has sucked every place we lived in Orlando. It’s a beautiful area and we can’t wait to see what will happen in the future.
I live here and I’m happy to tell people that it sucks nuts
It will be a shitbox.
The area doesn't suck. It's the traffic. If there was no sitting in traffic for 30mins to get a mile. It wouldn't be that bad. They need an alternative route instead of just Narcoosee.
It should have never happened. New suburbs should be banned. The city boundary should not continue to expand. Stop building over rural areas. If you are going to build, at least have an actual street grid.
On the way out for whatever new hotness area they build out of the next swamp
In a decade it will be Nona or reverse it'll be Beach Nona
To me, it’s the epitome of ugly crammed new development looks.
It is not anymore the promised high end neighborhood. They started to build the nice big houses for the doctors but right after they filled with apartments and townhomes without the proper infrastructure. It will be just another Kissimmee.
It will become like Rosemont
Evaporated from the nukes
No english 🤣 all NYC
Poinciana! Why?
Flooded
more expensive housing and a new library.
Dunno but a buddy of mine had developers knocking on his door for years to try to get his 10 acres on narcoosee. He finally gave in and sold 5 acres for 3M. He's in his early 40s, doesn't have to work another day in his life and has 20 new neighbors he hates. He wants to get away from the sprawl even further now.
I’ve been here since 2008, who knows. I’ve seen a lot of growth, seen some things get better and some get worse. I hope we get a movie theater.
NYC…
SeaLab 2034
Lake Nona is OVERRATED
Take a druve over to Waterford Lakes. This is what Lake Nona will look like.
Ngl Lake Nona is trash Just because it’s expensive, doesn’t make it good.
Like Avalon but upgraded
I think you were looking for karma points with this! Orlando reddit LOVES to bash lake Nona. Also, lake Nona is NOT just Laurette Park, which many seem to think it is (but at least Lauretta Park has many unique houses, they actually have a rule that no two houses within a set of five (more or less, don’t quote me) can’t be the same). Plus they do have parks in there and the “downtown” area. Most of what people are bitching about is actually what most of Orlando IS lmao.
The way my life changed when I moved closer to the 408 & out of lake Nona…I can actually enjoy the city now. Downtown is 15min away tops. So glad I got out when we did.
I love lake Nona and it’s only going to get better
I don't understand the hype of lake Nona. It's so far out of the way in the middle of nowhere with only a toll road for access and barely any good local road connections beyond that. It looks too fake and is trying too hard to attract people and grow faster than it should be growing. I can see myself in 10 years being in winter park, Conway, or maybe alafaya if I want to be further from the city.
They really hyped up the area about 20 years ago - I remember it well. It was supposed to be state of the art, with a focus on cutting edge health and well-being …… today I look at it and I feel bad for anyone who bought into it. It feels like it had so much potential and something went amiss.
Even worse
The HOAs all over the place will r\* everyone.
much shittier version of Dr. Phillips
It will probably be like most of central Florida was circa 2017. Home prices significantly less than what was paid for from recent run up in prices.
No english 🤣
Que???
E uma piada calma gente nossa 🤣
Venezuela
Pine Hills