5,000 new homes may be added during worst real estate slump since at least 2008.
By Johannes Werner
Original Air Date: May 7, 2025
Host: In a second round, the company behind the Lakewood Ranch Southeast mega-development got their way. On Tuesday, the county commission allowed the developer to turn agricultural land into yet another suburb. That means bulldozers could soon begin clearing 4,000 acres of pasture in rural Sarasota County to build up to 5,000 homes—in the middle of what looks like the worst real estate slump in this region since at least 2008.
Lakewood Ranch Southeast: 5,000 homes on 5,000 acres of pasture land.
Johannes Werner: Up for a vote in yesterday’s Sarasota County Commission meeting was the rezoning of 548 acres of agricultural land, the last of seven batches that together form the Lakewood Ranch expansion project. In a first vote in February, the commission postponed a decision on that rezoning 3-2, citing technicalities.
At the meeting on Tuesday, Commissioners Tom Knight and Mark Smith questioned staffers about the wiggling room they had for a potential “no” vote. The response: A rejection of the rezone would challenge a 2022 Master Development Order and open the county to potential lawsuits by developers.
In the final 4-1 tally, Knight was the sole dissenter.
This ends a long process of changing the county’s comprehensive plan that began in 2022. It included a lawsuit by residents of Old Miakka, who fear their rural lifestyle will be wiped out. An administrative judge and then an appellate court ruled against the plaintiffs.
In an interview with the Herald-Tribune, Lakewood Ranch developer Rex Jensen said it would have been “illegal” to vote down his rezone petition. He also said he was ready to break ground on Lakewood Ranch Southeast.
The 5,000 new homes would come in addition to another 4,500 homes Lakewood Ranch is getting ready to build on the Manatee side of the county limit.
This massive expansion comes at a time of crisis. Home values in the area have tumbled in recent months, as inventories of homes—measured by the time properties are on the market before they get sold—are reaching record highs in the area. Southwest Florida is the national epicenter of this inventory crisis.
Lennar Homes, one of the nation’s largest homebuilders, in its first-quarter earnings report, warned investors that it had to resort to incentives and discounts to sell its homes lately. Lennar cited Texas and Southwest Florida as its most problematic markets.
Reporting for WSLR News, Johannes Werner.
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