POLK COUNTY, Fla. — Residents in a rural Winter Haven community are suing Polk County commissioners for approving a large housing development in their community that had previously been denied.

Residents said city officials used a loophole to push the development.

“There’s a lot of shady things that have gone on in this process,” said Quentin Rowe, a Crystal Beach Road resident who filed a lawsuit in early September. “The bottom line is, we beat them at the county commission in 2017. It was a 5-0 vote. They took it to the court, they ruled in our favor - it was over; they started the process again. First time it was for 94 houses, this time it was 87.”

Originally, the Polk County Commission and a 10th judicial circuit court judge said that Heritage Investment could not build the amount of homes desired on the 28.5 acres that they own on Crystal Beach Road.

“It went against zoning,” said Rowe. “No one here has a problem with development, but they want to put 87 homes where there would usually only be about 30 according to the zoning that everyone else in this area has to abide by.”

Crystal Beach Road is a quiet community that you’ll only find yourself in if you live there.

Each home on average sits comfortably on 1.3 acres of land, a caliber residents say they want to keep but this new development will build 87 homes within 28 acres and they have already started building.

“We weren’t notified,” said residents.

Those who we spoke with that day said they only found out that they were moving forward with the development because they saw construction workers prepping the lot.

“We started doing homework and we noticed this little thing called a level 2 review,” said Rowe.

Level two review allows commissioners to change zoning plans without notifying existing residents.

“We’ve won every battle with development in this neighborhood, said resident Stephen Amos.  “What was the shock is they pulled this residential infill out of a code that nobody ever heard of.”

A residential infill is the building of homes onto a vacant piece of land. This is typically something you see in metropolitan areas.

“Other people have had to follow the rules,” said Amos. “There’s a developer right up the way that wanted to build additional homes and he was told no because of our zoning rules; it’s not that we have a problem with more homes – it’s the amount of homes and traffic that will now be on our narrow two-way road. It’s a hazard.”

Amos said there is no upside to building 87 homes within the 28.5 mikes that Heritage Investment Group owns in his community.

“There’s a forest, cattle ranches, horse ranches; to put a high density development on this road doesn’t fit,” said Katherine Gavin, another Crystal Beach Road Resident.  “I know they are everywhere but I would like our little road to stay what it is, a twisty turny two-lane country road.”  

Spectrum Bay News 9 reached out to Heritage Investment Group several times, to see if they could provide insight to how the new development could add value to the community but they declined to respond.