Eustis approves annexation for new subdivision near Lake Yale

The Eustis City Commission voted to annex and rezone 20 acres south of Lake Yale for a new neighborhood from MAS Development.

The South Florida-based developer is under contract to buy the property from John and Betty Drawdy, who are represented by attorneys Madelyn Damon and Bret Jones. The site is north of County Road 44 and east of Sparrow Lane.

Nico Chami, acquisitions director for MAS, said the project will be low-density and contain detached fee-simple single-family lots. While there’s no set number of units yet, Chami said the project will land within the proposed maximum density of five dwelling units per acre.

Approval of the project will require a future land use amendment from Lake County Urban Low to Suburban Residential and a design district amendment to assign the site under the Suburban Neighborhood designation.

“This is an infill parcel, so to speak, that is being annexed into the city and is consistent with the city’s future land use map,” Jones said. “There are no specific change requests, there are no waiver requests, there are no variance requests; and the city, in their future land use map, envisioned this to be Suburban Residential.”

Jones said the project site contains a single residence and a vacant orange grove, and that MAS has tentatively named it Grand Crossing.

“It’s between Eustis and Grand Isle, so instead of picking a name that’s meaningless or named after some place in England, they chose a name that means something and that kind of makes sense,” Jones said.

The project is unique, he said, in that it adheres to standards proposed by the City of Eustis in their most recent comprehensive plan. The comprehensive plan was reverted back to previous standards by the passage of SB 180 earlier this year, according to Jones.

As written, SB 180 prohibits cities and counties within 100 miles of the track of recent Hurricanes Milton, Helene, and Debby from proposing or adopting “more restrictive or burdensome procedures” on the land development process, including comprehensive plan amendments and other development regulations.

The law states that those more restrictive or burdensome procedures can’t be proposed or adopted before October 1, 2027.

Jones said MAS Development voluntarily agreed to meet the standards set by the City of Eustis, though not required to do so under SB 180.

“What’s cool about this applicant is that it said ‘we know that the law reverts us back to the old set, which was less restrictive and less nuanced, but we voluntarily are willing to agree with the city — through a development agreement — to adhere to those higher standards that you’ve created’,” Jones said.