First Phase Approved for 67-Lot Residential Development

An accepted phase one final plat for a new subdivision will allow construction to begin at Harper Estates, a 67-lot development that was approved by the Lake Wales city commission last year. The first phase will consist of 29 lots.

Harper Estates will lie adjacent to Orange Lake, a small body of water on the south side of Mountain Lake Road just west of US 27, near Speedway Auto Sales. The site is also adjacent to a tract of the Lake Wales Ridge National Wildlife Refuge, which was established in the early 1990s to protect endangered plants.

Access to the site will be along Mountain Lake Road connecting to US 27, as well as west toward the West Scenic Park community and Old Bartow Road. City of Lake Wales utilities will serve the homesites with water. A sewer lift station will be constructed on site to connect to a city main lying on the west side of US 27.

The subdivision is the first residential development west of the highway south of Lake Ashton, although Lake Wales Property Holdings LLC has received conceptual approval for a vast swath of land lying north of this site and reaching to Thompson Nursery Road. That project is eventually expected to contain up to 6200 residences, along with commercial highway frontage, hotel, warehouse, and institutional uses.