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City of Auburndale Shares Big Plans for 2025, Projects in Process and Coming Soon

January 15, 2025 News

Auburndale City Manager Jeff Tillman juggles multiple projects — exciting opportunities for residents and the area including The Lake Ariana Park development.  

“We are relocating the Civic Center to Lake Ariana Park; it will sit on the location of the historic Mac’s Beach,” said Tillman, a native of the City of Auburndale. The population of the northern Polk County city was an estimated 20,000 in 2023. There have not been any major capital improvements at the park since the 1980s. 

The city used a Design/Build concept for the $20 million project, which started in June 2023. SpringerVoss Construction is leading the project, which also includes architect The Lunz Group and civil engineer Chastain Skillman, he said. 

Lake Ariana Park current development & completed rendering (right)

 “The Civic Center will have 30,000 square feet of rental space, including two larger rooms for rentals, a recreation room, and a back deck on Lake Ariana. It will really provide us with a great place to have large events, parties, wedding receptions, city functions and more,” Tillman said. “Lake Ariana is a focal point of Auburndale. When you come into town, you go around it. It’s really nice to have a city park on the lake.” 

The park will also include a new boat dock, picnic pavilions, outdoor event space, a playground and beach volleyball courts. Construction is scheduled for completion in 2025. 

“Everyone is keeping an eye on it,” Tillman said. “You can see the construction from the other side of the lake. It’s been a great project, really seamless.” 

Other 2025 Auburndale Projects

The new year also brings two other major projects:  

  1. Sewer upgrades
  2. Lake Myrtle Sports Complex improvements

Sewer Projects

Since Tillman became city manager in 2021, growth has been exponential. “There’s been increase over increase,” he said. “We saw early on we were having challenges in the sewer system – the size of the lift stations that pump sewage to the sewer plant. We need to improve those.” 

On the positive side, impact fees from new development help pay for the things that need to be done, Tillman said. “It’s a good thing – we don’t have to ask residents to pay more.” Developers pay impact fees to local governments to offset the costs associated with their new development. The money pays for public infrastructure and services that are affected. 

The first of five sewer projects – all in various stages of construction — should be completed in February or March 2025.  Most of the projects will be completed this year, he said, allowing for new development to continue. 

Lake Myrtle Sports Complex

Aerial of Lake Myrtle Sports Complex

Lake Myrtle Sports Complex improvements are being tackled under a multi-year arrangement with Polk County and Visit Central Florida’s Tourism & Sports Marketing. In the agreement, $3M is paid up front, and $5M each year is financed for three years for a total of $18M.  

Phase 1 of the Lake Myrtle project includes adding bathrooms, fencing around the soccer stadium, walking trails and improving lighting and the ski lake. 

The city will build youth football fields and a baseball stadium. They will also add AstroTurf to the softball complex.  

“Our softball field was built for men’s softball. Youth play there now. Everything is bigger than it needs to be,” Tillman said. “We have youth soccer and baseball there, so it made sense to bring in football and softball. We will have all the youth facilities – I’m really excited about that. It’s a great multiyear project and we have a good partnership with the county. There are a lot of parts to this project, but this is the way to do it without having to come back each year to ask for money.” 

Attracting New Business

With all the work that’s been done at the Lake Myrtle Sports Complex in the last few years, the city is beginning to see tourism take hold. “There’s more interest in hotels and commercial space. Residents are glad to hear that because it means more restaurants and the like moving in. And, the housing market is still strong here,” Tillman said. 

It’s also focused on two big planning initiatives: 

“We have an opportunity to do something different there, to help build what will support the cities, Florida Poly and SunTrax. What would be best in that area? Could it be flex spaces to develop the next autonomous vehicle components? Could it be apartments to help the university because we don’t have a lot of that in Auburndale?” Tillman asked. 

Much of what the city lacks is what the university, SunTrax and the sports complex need, Tillman said, making development a win-win for the area. 

“We are also looking at things we are missing in Auburndale that would also help Florida Poly, places like Starbucks, Chick-fil-A and Panera where students go to work and gather. We could develop commercial outparcels on Pace Road and have research and development behind it. Industry supports it. Students need that to work, recreate. The area needs hotels. We’ve tried to guide some of that with the CFID.” 

Lakes District Plans

The Lakes District includes a couple thousand acres that used to be orange groves, Tillman said, the largest remaining land tracts in Auburndale. 

Lakes District, taken from City of Auburndale website

“We want to work with the owners to do more of Celebration-style, new urbanism that allows for some mixed-use but offers a different style of residential development, pushing density into it,” he said. “The master plan community creates a look and feel.” 

The first development is under construction, but it will take years to develop the whole neighborhood — 850 residential units in all, he said. “We’re trying different sized lots for single-family residential with a five-acre park in the middle. Trails will be throughout. It’s a different style of residential development.” 

Accomodating Growth

The Lake Ariana and Lake Myrtle projects help the city deal with growth, Tillman said. “With all the growth and new residents, you don’t want to reduce the quality of life and level of services. But how do you maintain parks with all the growth? We have tremendous parks, and we have to use the space wisely.” 

The city bought 27 acres on the north side of Auburndale to create a passive park to accommodate growth there.  

“With Lake Myrtle, we have a healthy supply of active sports facilities. On Lake Mattie we wanted to preserve adequate park space. As growth continues, we will develop that park. It’s further on the horizon, but we have to think about it now.”  

It’s not all about parks. The city also has plans to add fire stations in the next three years, he said. “We’re still full speed ahead. There’s a lot on the horizon for Auburndale.”  

Challenges for Auburndale in 2025

Like almost every city in Polk County, growth remains an opportunity for creative planning and innovative solutions.  

“That means different things for every city. It’s mostly infrastructure and utilities,” Tillman said. “Everybody is experiencing transportation challenges. That could be the need to expand roads, add new roads or do intersection improvements.” 

In Auburndale, it’s the latter. “We have a pretty good road network. Interstate 4 and U.S. 92 run east and west. The Polk Parkway, Berkley Road and County Road 559 run north and south, with CR 559 being the gateway into the community. The roads can handle commercial traffic – people driving through and not stopping.” 

But some intersections need improvement, he said, so the city reached out to the county to partner with them on some of the work.  

“If you’re stopped at a stop sign and sitting there way too long for it to clear out, can we put a signal in?” he asked. “We’re throwing around the concept of roundabouts as a way to navigate around road turns and our lakes.” 

Overall, Tillman is happy with the way the city is moving ahead. “We have a great City Council, and they have a cohesive vision for the city. We are very fortunate here.”  

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