Altamonte Springs:

Altamonte Mall

Palm Springs Drive

Uptown Altamonte

Crane's Roost Park

Although Altamonte Springs was incorporated in 1920, its population totaled only 5,000 as recently as 1970. But that was before developers turned this erstwhile whistle stop into a thriving suburb.

Today, Altamonte Springs, population 42,000+, is known primarily for the Altamonte Mall, built in 1974 as the area’s first regional mall, and for the presence of virtually every chain eatery in the world.

Many of the city’s subdivisions can be found along Palm Springs Drive, Maitland Avenue and Montgomery Road, not far from the mall. Some of the older developments are nestled around hidden lakes that seem far removed from the hustle and bustle.
Multifamily housing also is plentiful, with no fewer than 30 apartment developments located within the city limits, primarily along Semoran Boulevard, also known as S.R. 436. Apartment living, plus the convenience of shopping and entertainment venues, has made Altamonte Springs popular among young adults.

But because no city wants its identity tied entirely to a mall, local officials are focusing on a 25-acre project called Uptown Altamonte, which would shift the focus toward adjacent Crane’s Roost Park and its 40-acre man-made lake.

Uptown Altamonte, a $250 million partnership between the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency and Unicorp National Developments, will encompass more than 550 multifamily residential units, 255,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space, 150,000 square feet of office space, a park and an amphitheater on Crane’s Roost Lake.

Also overlooking Crane’s Roost Lake is Emerson Plaza, a condominium tower where units have sold so well that developer Emerson International has started construction on a second tower. Another condominium tower, Park Towers, has been delayed until the residential market picks up.

Casselberry:

Casselberry City Hall

Casselberry Golf Club

Casselberry Homes

Red Bug Lake Park

Founded by World War I veteran Hibbard Casselberry, who in 1926 bought 3,000 acres to grow ferns, Casselberry emerged as a suburban residential community after World War II.

By the time it was incorporated in 1965, Casselberry encompassed a number of family-oriented subdivisions and a budding business district near the intersection of S.R. 436 and U.S. 17-92.

In the decades that followed, the city continued to grow – the population today stands at more than 22,000 – but it became almost indistinguishable from surrounding unincorporated areas.

The quintessential bedroom community plans on reclaiming its distinctive identity with a 16-acre town center along U.S. 17-92 near City Hall. Details are currently in the planning stages with Quorum Development.

Other improvements are continuing, however. A park just north of City Hall is being revamped and expanded to include an amphitheater on Lake Concord. The new and improved facility will host the city’s biannual jazz fest as well as a chili cook-off, art shows and other special events.

The old Seminole Greyhound Park property off Seminola Boulevard is also being redeveloped as Legacy Park, which contains single-family homes and townhomes as well as commercial and retail space. Centex Homes is the primary builder.

Casselberry has 15 parks, more than two dozen lakes and a municipal golf course within its city limits.

Adjacent to Casselberry is unincorporated Fern Park, which, as the name suggests, also traces its beginnings to the fern-growing industry. Like Casselberry, it developed into a bedroom community for Orlando starting in the 1950s.

Lake Mary:

City of Lake Mary

AAA Building in Lake Mary

Heathrow

Alaqua

Lake Mary is one of Central Florida’s hottest growth areas, thanks in part to the dogged persistence of Jeno Paulucci, a blustery self-made millionaire who made his first fortune selling frozen Chinese food and a second one selling frozen pizza.

The city today sits at the epicenter of Florida’s High-Tech Corridor, which follows I-4 from Tampa through Seminole County and northeast to Daytona Beach and Melbourne. Along the route, government and industry have joined forces to attract leading-edge companies in such fields as telecommunications, medical technology and microelectronics.

In Lake Mary, population 14,000, dozens of such companies have set up shop in several sprawling business centers that have combined to create a Central Florida version of Silicon Valley.

But it all started as an isolated railroad station known as Bents, the surname of a local grove owner. In 1900, industry arrived in Bents when Planters Manufacturing Company built a factory to produce starches, dextrins, farina and tapioca.

The facility closed in 1910, however, and Bents – later renamed Lake Mary, for the wife of a local pastor – seemed destined to remain and out-of-the-way country town.

That was the case for another half-century, until the construction of I-4 and a successful campaign by community boosters to get a Lake Mary interchange tacked onto the project.

The resulting tracts of easily accessible land caught the eye of Paulucci, founder of Chun King. In the late 1970s he announced plans to build a luxurious residential development and business hub called Heathrow.

Few thought the audacious Paulucci would be successful, and the project floundered at first. But then the plainspoken old salesman quieted naysayers by persuading the American Automobile Association to relocate from suburban Washington D.C., to his Heathrow Business Center.

The AAA coup, at the time Central Florida’s most important corporate relocation in decades, jump-started Heathrow and opened the door for all the business and residential development that followed.

Lake Mary officials are using a $100,000 federal grant to advance plans to redevelop the old downtown area to better reflect the city’s prosperous image. And there are an array of new projects, such as Colonial Town Park, a 175-acre mixed-use development featuring shops, restaurants, movie theaters and apartments in a village setting.

Longwood:

City of Longwood

Wekiva Country Club

Longwood Historic District

Wekiva Springs State Park

Of all Seminole County’s municipalities, Longwood, population 13,700, has the most history to preserve, and has done the best job of preserving it. But it’s still a modern place, with a plethora of exclusive country club communities, office parks and shopping centers.

In 1873 a New Englander named Edward Henck homesteaded a tract of land that he named Longwood, after a Boston suburb he had helped plan.

Henck was also the town’s first postmaster and its first mayor. And in what may have been his spare time, Henck co-founded the South Florida Railroad and built a llne connecting Sanford and Orlando, which enabled Longwood to boom as a citrus- and lumber-shipping center as well as a winter resort destination.

But as crucial as Henck was to Longwood’s development, it was a carpenter named Josiah Clouser, a Henck employee, whose legacy is most visible. Clouser, a Pennsylvanian, constructed most of the buildings still standing in Longwood’s remarkable historic district, a two—block area on Warren and Church avenues near the intersection of C.R. 427 and S.R. 434.

Popular annual events include the Longwood Arts and Crafts Festival, held the weekend before Thanksgiving, and the Founders Day Spring Arts and Crafts Festival, held in March.

On the outskirts of the city; toward neighboring Apopka in Orange County is Wekiva Springs State Park. And on General Hutchinson Avenue is Big Tree State Park, home of “The Senator,” said to be the oldest and largest cypress tree in the state.

Oviedo:

UCF

Lake Jesup

Lake Charm Circle

Oviedo Marketplace

While Oviedo might be one of Central Florida’s oldest communities, first settled some 140 years ago, this Seminole County boomtown knows how to embrace newcomers.
Indeed, few Central Florida municipalities have witnessed the kind of growth Oviedo has seen in recent years. The town’s population is closing in on 30,000-more than a tenfold increase since 1980.

Oviedo’s growth was a long time coming. The area’s first settlers, who put down stakes near Lake Jesup in the 1 860s, called it Solary’s Wharf. In 1883 postmaster Andrew Aulin dubbed it Oviedo, supposedly after seeing a Spanish town of the same name on a map.

Longtime locals point to 1964 as perhaps the most significant year in Oviedo’s history. That’s when a desolate 1,145-acre tract in rural northeast Orange County, about seven miles east of the city, was selected as the site for Florida Technological University (now the University of Central Florida).

Initially, the carpetbagging Ph.D.s and the wary farmers made an unlikely combination. But they were united by their desire to maintain Oviedo’s small-town ambiance and to cling to its agricultural heritage.

Indeed, the biggest worry among many longtime residents these days is that Oviedo’s sleepy old downtown might go the way of the long-vanished orange groves and celery fields. Oviedo on the Park, a.k.a. “the new downtown,” is planned for what’s now a tangerine grove just north of Mitchell Hammock Road. The 50-acre project, developed by Broad Street Partners, would encompass 1,200 residential units as well as a park, a lake, an amphitheater and 100,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space.

But even if the old downtown doesn’t survive, the city won’t lack for historic places. Indeed, the Oviedo Historical Trail lists no fewer than 85 significant sites, including the home of pioneer postmaster George Browne, built in 1885, and the James Wilson House, built in 1938 on Lake Charm Circle.

Another big draw for relocators is the Oviedo area’s public schools, most of which received A’s when the state Department of Education handed out this year’s grades.

Nearby, unincorporated Chuluota is experiencing a transformation from rural enclave to booming suburb. Two new subdivisions, Osprey Lakes and The Trails, have doubled the town’s population, and it’s expected that several hundred acres at the Seminole-Orange county line will be developed as well. In fact, the once - isolated town is projected to grow 48 percent by 2016.

Sanford:

Lake Monroe

Downtown Sanford

Orlando-Sanford Airport

Helen Stairs Theater

Located on the shores of Lake Monroe, Sanford once rivaled Orlando as the region’s largest city. A major distribution center for vegetables and citrus, it was known as “The Celery Capital of the World.”

But agriculture is no longer king in Sanford, population 38,000+. Today it’s the Seminole County seat, making county government the leading employer.

And, after years of stagnation, Sanford is also a city on the rise, thanks to a burgeoning airport—one of the fastest-growing in the country—and a downtown redevelopment project.

Today, Sanford is enjoying a resurgence that is in part tied to increased air travel at the Orlando—Sanford International Airport. The facility, located on Sanford’s east side, has a two—story international terminal, a separate domestic terminal, a U.S. Customs Office and three paved runways. As the facility grows, it’s expected to create some 21,000 new jobs over the next 15 years.

In historic downtown Sanford, work is complete on the $11 million Sanford Riverwalk, which includes sidewalks and bike trails along Lake Monroe between Mellonville and French avenues. Several large condominium towers have also been proposed.

One of the most important downtown attractions is the Helen Stairs Theater, a renovated movie house that hosts theatrical productions and live concerts.

And work has recently finished on a streetscape project to enhance First Street, downtown’s main drag, between Oak and Sanford avenues. Under the $2.2 million project, the original brick beneath the asphalt was restored, sidewalks were widened and parking spaces changed from angled to parallel.

Relocators to Sanford can choose from an array of new subdivisions on the city’s outskirts, or they can latch on to Victorian fixer-uppers in the rapidly gentrifying city center.

Winter Springs:

Black Hammock

Tuscawilla

Winter Springs TownCenter

Winter Springs High School

Until the mid-1950s, Winter Springs was nothing more than several square miles of scrub pine and palmettos. That’s when developers Raymond Moss and William Edgemon bought the land, subdivided it and introduced the Village of North Orlando.

At the start of the 1970’s, a time of rampant growth throughout Central Florida, the area contained one small grocery store and roughly 300 homes straddling State Road 434.

Tuscawilla, eastern Seminole County’s first upscale golf course community, changed all that. Also, a new city charter was adopted in 1972, changing the city’s name to Winter Springs.

Today, the city’s growth rivals that of adjacent Oviedo. In the past two decades, population has increased 800 percent, to more than 31,600. And more growth is on the way, through both residential and commercial development.

Officials are now eyeing more of the so-called Black Hammock, a marshy wilderness north of the city, where scattered homes are set on three- to five-acre lots. Over the years, the city has annexed several Black Hammock parcels and rezoned them to allow new subdivisions, much to the chagrin of many Black Hammock residents.

In any case, Winter Springs is moving ahead on other fronts. For example, a South Carolina-based developer has completed Phase I of a 240-acre Town Center at the corner of State Road 434 and Tuskawilla Road. The complex will ultimately encompass 2,400 multifamily residential units, 99 single-family homes, 591,000 square feet of retail space and 573,000 square feet of office space along with apartments, parks and public buildings.