Site Development Underway for Belle Lago Subdivision on South Side of Lake Wales

Site work has begun on the site of Belle Lago, an 84-home subdivision on Lake Belle on the south side of Lake Wales. The project is one of several housing projects now underway across the city.

Robert Connors

The future entrance to Belle Lago on South Scenic Highway in Lake Wales is presently a construction entrance. Heavy equipment is being used to contour the future streets and homesites on the property to prepare for the 84 homes which will eventually be constructed there.

The city Lake Wales City Commission approved preliminary plans for the project in July, 2021 after it received the nod from both city planners and the Planning and Zoning Board. The project is immediately south of and adjacent to a portion of the Ridge Manor subdivision, an enclave of unincorporated county land inside the city limits.

The community will feature only a single entrance on South Scenic Highway, a shortcoming identified in the Lake Wales Envisioned plan, but since it borders only Lake Belle to the north and west and city property to the south, there is no potential for connections to adjacent residential areas.

Belle Lago will feature a fishing pier and open space for resident access along about 2,000 feet of lake frontage on Lake Belle. No boat ramp has been requested or permitted. Multiple storm-water retention areas are planned to divert rainwater that might otherwise be drained into the lake.

Courtesy City of Lake Wales

The preliminary site plan approved by the Lake Wales city commission in 2021 shows the streets, homesites, open space, and stormwater retention ponds on the site, currently being contoured for development.

Lake Belle is a closed basin lake, which means it lacks an outfall at times of high water. It rose sharply during widespread flooding in the winter of 2004-2005, which followed the heavy rains of three hurricanes in the prior summer. Residents of a low-lying mobile home community found their homes immersed in flood waters, subsequently filing a lawsuit blaming the city for the damage claiming a nearby infiltration basin used by the city had caused the flooding. The city's insurance carrier eventually paid to settle with residents.

The Belle Lago site, a former citrus grove, sits 10 feet or more above the level of the lake.