Our Town

It's urban and rural, wealthy and middle class, bustling and laid back, traditional and edgy, conservative and liberal, sophisticated and naive. But for all their contradictions, the Central Florida communities known collectively as Orlando are unmistakably family-friendly and unabashedly welcoming to newcomers.

Despite its outsized international profile, Orlando proper is, in fact, a medium-sized municipality of fewer than 200,000 people.

The Orlando metropolitan statistical area, however, encompasses 1.7 million people throughout Orange, Seminole, Osceola and Lake counties. Like the region's best-known city, the dozens of communities encompassing the metro area boast charms all their own.

In Central Florida you'll find picture-postcard villages where tree-shaded streets are lined with antique shops and Victorian homes, farm towns where citrus packing plants still crate and ship delicious oranges, and modern mixed-use developments built around resort-style amenities.

And everywhere you'll see beautiful lakes. These thousands of shimmering bodies of water-some huge, some tiny and many interconnected by manmade canals or natural tributaries-provide some of the choicest real estate in all of Florida. Indeed, many cities and towns have made their placid shores community focal points. In Orlando, for instance, Lake Eola Park, a 20-acre urban escape, is arguably the heart of the city.

Given the region's charms, it's no surprise that rapid growth continues. In fact, areas once considered to be on the periphery are increasingly being drawn into Orlando's orbit. To the northeast, Volusia County, home to world-famous Daytona Beach, is a hot spot for growth. And to the southwest, once-sleepy Polk County is rapidly sprouting subdivisions where orange groves formerly thrived.

And that pace is expected to continue for decades. While the United States is expected to grow 47 percent through 2050, Central Florida is expected to grow 136 percent, adding another 4 million residents and making the region larger than all but four other metropolitan areas.

But with so much going on in so many places, where should a newcomer look for a home?

We can help. Following is a county-by-county primer where you'll find everything from new master-planned developments to funky historic districts. Undoubtedly there's a neighborhood, and a home, perfect for you and your family.

ORANGE COUNTY AT A GLANCE

LAND AREA: 907 square miles
PERSONS PER SQUARE MILE: 1,127.9
POPULATION (2005): 1,023,023
POPULATION INCREASE (1990-2005): 51%
2006 PROJECTED POPULATION: 1,070,509
MEAN TRAVEL TIME TO WORK: 26.6 minutes
MEDIAN HOUSEHOLD INCOME: $40,604
FACTOID: Orlando" target="_blank">Orange County was originally called Mosquito County. the name was changed in 1845, when Florida became a state. Today, more than 43 million people annually visit Orlando" target="_blank">Orange County, which boasts more than 100,000 hotel rooms and roughly 4,000 places to eat.

APOPKA

Apopka's roots, literally and figuratively, are in agriculture. However, this booming city of 35,000, located in the northwest corner of Orlando" target="_blank">Orange County, now encompasses some of the region's most exclusive addresses. Since 1990, Apopka has more than doubled its area by annexing some 11,000 acres, much of it previously rural land. This land grab has often put the city at odds with Orlando" target="_blank">Orange County, especially when it comes to protecting the fragile Wekiva River basin.

Apopka was settled in the 1840s and named after the Timucuan Indian word meaning "big potato" or "potato-eating place." Ironically, the farms that still surround the city grow just about everything but potatoes. Noted as "The Indoor Foliage Capital of the World," Apopka's foliage industry is a multimillion-dollar business. Consequently, downtown boasts a stainless steel sculpture of a Boston fern instead of the expected war hero or early pioneer. Cut flowers, blooming plants, roses and bulbs are also grown in abundance.

But agriculture is rapidly vanishing as dozens of muck farms, created when Lake Apopka was diked during World War II, are purchased by the state and shut down in an effort to restore the polluted body of water to a pristine state.

Just west of Apopka is the agricultural town of Zellwood, home of the annual Zellwood Corn Festival. The event, held each May for more than 30 years, draws thousands to hear country music and nosh on what is widely regarded as the sweetest sweet corn grown anywhere.

COLLEGE PARK

Retirees so dominated Orlando's College Park in the early 1970s that there was talk of closing Princeton Elementary, a well-regarded school that had stood since the neighborhood was platted in the 1920s. Today, although the demographics may be changing, much about this beloved Orlando neighborhood remains the same. The 80-year-old commercial district along Edgewater Drive has always been home to an array of delightful mom-and-pop shops and eclectic eateries. The streets have always been quiet and the homes well kept and charming.

College Park residents still enjoy a grower's market, held in Albert Park every Thursday evening from October through May. And throughout the years, many of Orlando's best-known personalities have called the neighborhood home. Today's roster ranges from the likes of Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer to rock 'n' roll legend Roger McGuinn of The Byrds.

So protective are College Park residents of their neighborhood that they banded together to protest the removal of a circa-1950s sign adorning the local Publix supermarket. The grocery chain quickly dropped its plans and restored the sign to its original Eisenhower-age splendor.

Much of the talk in College Park these days is over mixed-use condominium, office and retail developments such as the Wellesley, a five-story, $48 million project nearing completion on the corner of Edgewater and Princeton Avenue, in the heart of the community's Mayberryesque main drag.

Jim Kersey, developer of the Wellesley and a College Park resident, has also bought parcels along Edgewater Drive for future development, leading some longtime residents to worry about increased traffic and an unwelcome change in the neighborhood's small-town ambiance.

Another big project on the drawing board is The Quad at College Park, a 21-acre, mixed-use development by Demetree Builders that will contain condominiums, shops and offices as well as a Village Green. A vintage trailer park currently occupies the site. At this writing, however, the Orlando" target="_blank">Orange County School Board also was wrangling for the property for a much-needed expansion of Edgewater High School.

EATONVILLE

Eatonville, America's oldest African-American municipality, was incorporated in 1883. But it has been difficult for the historic city to remain viable under the burden of a declining tax base and routine accusations of financial mismanagement among elected officials.

Eatonville's most famous former resident is the Harlem Renaissance author and folklorist Zora Neale Hurston, who spent her early years in Eatonville and wrote about her childhood in books such as Their Eyes Were Watching God and Dust Tracks on a Road.

The Hurston connection has been the catalyst for the city's signature event, the Zora Neale Hurston Festival of the Arts and Humanities, which generally attracts more than 50,000 people on the last weekend in January. The Zora Neale Hurston Museum of Fine Arts is the organizer.

In addition, a highly rated TV movie based on Their Eyes Were Watching God, starring Halle Berry, aired last March, bringing national attention. And the city's fortuitous location between Maitland and Winter Park and its attractive land prices finally have begun to attract commercial and industrial investment.

Improving the city's aesthetics will be a streetscape program along its main thoroughfare, Kennedy Boulevard. And boosters are proud of a new Orlando" target="_blank">Orange County branch library, which celebrates the community's heritage with a large Hurston display.

GOTHA

If you're not a horticulturist, perhaps you've never heard of Gotha, a tiny rural enclave tucked inconspicuously north of upscale Windermere.

But if plants are your passion, you may know Gotha as the one-time caladium capital of the world and home of Henry Nehrling, a horticulturist who specialized in growing tropical and subtropical plants.

Nehrling, who moved to Gotha in 1884, established one of the most renowned botanical gardens in the world, as well as an experimental agriculture station for the study of exotic strains of bamboo, amaryllis, bromeliad, orchid, ficus and, of course, the caladium, which Nehrling was the first in Florida to grow and sell.

The famed botanist once described Gotha as "a dreamland, with almost untouched evergreen woodlands and hundreds of lakes glittering like mirrors." And that "dreamland" remains charming, although upscale homes are sprouting like, well, caladiums.

But the tree-shaded, one-block commercial district features the wood vernacular, circa-1920 New Life at Zion Lutheran Church. And across the street is Yellow Dog Eats, a funky restaurant that occupies a circa-1879 structure that had previously been a private home and a general store.

The post office still has a community chalkboard out front, where notices are posted about civic meetings and potluck suppers. As for Nehrling's ramshackle homestead, dubbed Nehrling Gardens, it was almost torn down last year after the nonprofit Nehrling Society fell short in its bid to buy the home and the six acres surrounding it for a botanical park.

But a Winter Park woman who grew up in a foliage-raising family stepped forward late last year and snapped it up, then entered into a lease-purchase agreement with the society.

MAITLAND

Since the 1960s, Maitland has been a quintessential bedroom community. Some of the area's first suburbs were built there to attract young families looking for large lawns and good schools.

In the late 1970s a sprawling office park called Maitland Center was built near the I-4 interchange, giving the city a distinctive business identity as well. The 190-acre development contains a hotel, 45 office buildings and 400 businesses. More than 12,000 people work there.

Another big project that promises to give Maitland's somewhat nebulous downtown district a more cohesive look is Broad Street Partners' Uptown Maitland West, a seven-story retail and condominium development. The project was stalled when six local residents sued the city for allegedly approving it in violation of its own planning guidelines. But the suit was thrown out late last year, so Uptown Maitland West is on again at this writing.

Also under way is Uptown Maitland East, a retail and condominium project, and North Bridge, a commercial office project that will sit across from Uptown Maitland West. Both are being developed by Naples-based Red Robin Realty.

Meanwhile, Maitland Town Square has been given new life as well. The original developer backed out, but The Brossier Company has stepped in to negotiate with the city on taking over the project, which would include a city hall and a public safety complex in addition to condominiums and retail space.

And on the south side of downtown, The Morgan Group plans to build The Village at Lake Lily, a nine-acre, mixed-use project encompassing condominiums, apartments and 45,000 square feet of retail space.

Clearly, Maitland can only be described as a thoroughly modern place. Yet it has actually been in existence longer than most Central Florida communities.

It was established in 1838 as Fort Maitland, named in honor of Capt. William S. Maitland, a hero of the Second Seminole War. In 1880, the railroad from Sanford arrived, sparking a tourism boom that lasted until freezes in the 1890s scuttled the visitor trade.

In 1937 sculptor AndrZ Smith founded the Mayan-themed Art Center at Maitland, which was originally intended to be a compound where artists could live and work. The center, now listed on the National Register of Historic Places, features an open-air chapel that has become a popular spot for weddings. To help preserve vestiges of its past, city officials have established a historic corridor in the Lake Lily-Lake Catherine area. Along the corridor are roughly a half-dozen homes built in the 1880s through the turn of the century. There are also a handful of historic commercial buildings along Maitland Avenue.

Today Maitland is home to the Enzian Theater, the region's only art-house cinema and the setting for the annual Florida Film Festival. And two large art festivals are held in Maitland: one in October, sponsored by the Maitland Rotary Club, and one in April, sponsored by the Maitland/South Seminole Chamber of Commerce.

The Florida Audubon Society was founded in Maitland, and its headquarters, including a bird hospital, remain on Lake Sybellia.

OAKLAND

More than 100 years ago, Oakland was the industrial and social hub of Orlando" target="_blank">Orange County. Today the picturesque town, which lies two miles west of Winter Garden on the southern shores of Lake Apopka, is home to just 1,800 people.

Elected officials still refer to Oakland as a town, although it was incorporated as a city in 1959. The city designation does seem a bit incongruous for this rural enclave, where voters have rejected proposals to pave the narrow clay streets for fear that more people might want to drive on them.

Still, change is coming. Oakland's population has nearly tripled over the past three years, and planners say 5,000 people will call themselves Oaklanders by 2010.

Much of the growth has come from new gated subdivisions on the south side of S.R. 50, where some residents feel little connection to "old" Oakland and its small-town traditions.

Bringing longtime residents and newcomers together, however, is the Oakland Avenue Charter School, which was built using an $8 million, 30-year bond issue. The idea, say city officials, is to unite the community's disparate elements behind a community institution that benefits everyone.

Among the city's other assets is the 19-mile West Orange Trail, a mecca for hikers and bikers, beginning in Oakland and stretching northeast to Apopka along the original Orange Belt and Florida Midland rail beds. More than 50,000 people traverse the trail every month.

Oakland is also home to the 93-acre Oakland Nature Preserve, where wildlife abounds and paths and boardwalks line the shores of Lake Apopka.

OCOEE

Ocoee remained an isolated citrus town clustered around Starke Lake until the 1980s. Now, with 29,215 residents, it has edged ahead of Winter Park to become the third-largest city in Orlando" target="_blank">Orange County, behind Orlando and Apopka.

The transformation began two decades ago, when devastating freezes destroyed thousands of acres of citrus trees and opened west Orange and south Lake counties for development. Today, Ocoee boasts a 1-million-square-foot regional mall and at least two dozen new subdivisions with homes in all price ranges. Ocoee's beginnings were inauspicious. In the mid-1850s a physician named J.D. Starke led a group of slaves into the area and established a camp along the western shores of the lake that now bears his name. Capt. Bluford Sims, who hailed from Ocoee, Tenn., arrived in 1861 and bought 50 acres from Starke. He then platted what would become downtown Ocoee.

Through the years, Ocoee developed into a thriving citrus-producing center. Today, however, housing is the city's hottest commodity. The Florida Turnpike, the East-West Expressway and a new Western Beltway all pass through the city, meaning once-remote downtown Orlando is now just a 15-minute commute.

Despite its growth, Ocoee has managed to preserve its past. The annual Founders Day celebration, for example, starts with a parade and ends with fireworks. And those who want to soak up some additional local color may tour the Withers-Maguire House, once a winter refuge for a Confederate general and now a museum.

Also of interest is the circa-1890 Ocoee Christian Church, with its gothic architecture and Belgian-made stained-glass windows, as well as several vintage commercial buildings in the original downtown area. New residential development is focused on the northwest side, along the S.R. 429 corridor. A new community center and senior center are slated for the area, while a new high school, aptly named Ocoee High School, opened this year.

DOWNTOWN ORLANDO

During last year's building frenzy, scarcely a week passed without another major condominium development being announced for once-sleepy downtown Orlando. Sometimes, those same projects would announce quick sellouts as buyers swooped in to plunk down deposits.

Now, reality has taken hold and the pace has slowed. Yet, despite a softening market, more than 30 projects are either planned, under construction or recently finished. That means roughly 7,000 condominium units are in the pipeline, along with more than 1 million square feet of office space.

And on the fringes of downtown, huge expansions at Florida Hospital and Orlando Regional Medical Center are under way, while Florida A&M University's law school and a new federal courthouse were completed earlier this year.

Along Central Boulevard, at the bustling mixed-use complex known as Thornton Park Central, the day begins when gourmet-trendy Central City Market opens for breakfast.

Next door, Shari Sushi Lounge attracts a glittery lunch and evening crowd, while the spacious Urban Think! Bookstore offers in-the-know readers a gallery-bistro hangout.

And at the corner, trendy Hue remains one of the hottest dining spots in town, especially during its monthly "Disco Brunches," when the restaurant's self-serve Bloody Mary bar draws long lines and the retro sounds of Donna Summer fill the street.

And all that barely covers just one neighborhood in Orlando's dynamic downtown corridor.

In addition to all the new shops and markets, and an ever-changing firmament of nightclubs and restaurants, the city's central core has become one of the liveliest real estate markets in the region, attracting not only youngish, career-seeking singles who like to congregate where the action is, but also middle-aged professional couples who appreciate the convenience of a daily routine that doesn't depend on the vagaries of Central Florida traffic.

Of course, there are residential options downtown aside from new condominiums.

The charming old neighborhoods ringing the city have been gentrifying since the late 1980s. While Thornton Park is perhaps the highest-profile example, property values are also soaring in the city's other designated historic districts, including Lake Eola Heights, Lake Lawsona, Lake Cherokee and Lake Copeland.

As builders build and buyers buy, Mayor Buddy Dyer and others are looking for ways to boost downtown arts and entertainment options while enhancing pedestrian-friendly transportation systems and attracting a greater variety of businesses.

Building a performing arts complex and replacing the TD Waterhouse Centre, home of the NBA's Orlando Magic, are on Dyer's to-do list, as is an overhaul of the Citrus Bowl, currently home to two annual college football bowl match-ups.

But all these improvements are estimated to cost close to $1 billion. Who will foot the bill? Tourists will, if Dyer and Orlando" target="_blank">Orange County Mayor Rich Crotty get their way. A 1 percent hike in the county's resort tax, from 5 percent to 6 percent, is expected to raise $25 million annually.

The foundations for enormous change downtown are already in place, says City of Orlando economic development director Frank Billingsley.

"There's a trend across America of more and more people moving into downtowns, and we have a very desirable and pleasant downtown infrastructure in place," says Billingsley, who points to the city's brick streets, urban lakes and architectural variety.

"Our downtown is a neighborhood where you can feel very connected to friends, family and community. It's a much richer experience living in an urban environment where you can feel connected to the pulse of the community."

SOUTHEAST ORLANDO

At roughly 100 square miles, the region generally referred to as southeast Orlando encompasses the University of Central Florida, Orlando International Airport and an array of master-planned communities, as well as stretches of pastureland, piney forests and wetlands abutting the Econlockhatchee River.

But the remaining rural areas are rapidly vanishing as the pace of growth accelerates. Today the southeast sector, which includes portions of the city of Orlando as well as unincorporated Orlando" target="_blank">Orange County, is home to more than 200,000 people, with more arriving daily.

With this explosive growth, however, have come challenges. Chief among them: building enough roads, schools and healthcare facilities to keep pace. And although some developers are working with local governments to expand roads and construct new schools, there's also a movement afoot to form a new municipality in the county's unincorporated eastern region.

"The services we have are stretched beyond their limits. The east side [of Orlando" target="_blank">Orange County] has 40 percent of the county's population, but we don't see 40 percent of county assets being used here," explains Scott Kidd, a small business consultant who's leading the charge to incorporate.

Until the late 1980s, southeast Orlando-which is defined as stretching from the University of Central Florida in the north to Orlando International Airport in the south and from Goldenrod Road in the west to the Econ River in the east-was virtually untouched by the growth brought to the western reaches of Orlando" target="_blank">Orange County by Central Florida's ever-expanding tourism industry.

Instead, the area was home to family farms, the Econ River, CSX railroad tracks and the Orlando Utilities Commission's Curtis H. Stanton Energy Center. UCF was still known as a commuter college and more than a decade away from becoming one of Florida's largest public universities, while the area's other major economic engine, defense contracting, was just getting off the ground.

However, as land started to become scarce and pricey in other parts of Orlando and Orlando" target="_blank">Orange County, developers and homebuilders turned their attention to southeast Orlando.

As a result, the southeast sector was the fastest growing part of Orlando" target="_blank">Orange County between 1990 and 2000. In fact, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, the area's population grew by more than 81 percent, to 164,600, during the decade. At 200,000 people and roughly 65,000 households, southeast Orlando today boasts a larger population than the city proper.

Much of the growth has come in the form of large, master-planned communities that contain a mixture of single-family and multifamily homes clustered around retail and commercial development. Nestled amid a transportation network that includes the Beachline Expressway, the Central Florida GreeneWay and the East-West Expressway, southeast Orlando's growth should be no surprise.

"Location, location, location," chants Beat Kahli, developer of burgeoning Avalon Park. "This is the most ideal area. You can get almost anywhere in Central Florida-downtown Orlando, beaches, the attractions-in about 30 minutes."

The location factor is enhanced by the area's environmental and recreational offerings, beginning with the Econ River and the Hal Scott Regional Preserve and Park. Then there's the area's varied employment base, encompassing everything from higher education and defense contractors to the simulation industry and healthcare.

Top southeast Orlando employers include UCF, Central Florida Research Park, Siemens Westinghouse Power Corp., Lockheed Martin, Florida Hospital East Orlando, Orlando International Airport and Waterford Lakes Town Center.

Meanwhile, plans to develop International Corporate Park by Fort Myers-based Grosse Pointe Development Company are in the hands of the Florida Department of Community Affairs.

Currently, three different plans are being considered for the 1,000-acre site, located just east of the airport. All would transform the original plans for ICP from 20 million square feet of industrial development to a mixed-use, new urban village complete with a second location for Central Florida Research Park.

Central Florida Research Park's current 1,027-acre campus, located adjacent to UCF, is home to 9,500 employees who work for companies such as the National Center for Simulation, the Naval Air Warfare Center Training Systems Division, Hewitt Associates, Adaptec, Boeing, the Air Force Agency for Modeling and Simulation and the Army Simulation, Training and Instrumentation Command.

Tavistock Group, the developer of upscale Lake Nona, has been particularly aggressive in promoting commercial and job growth in southeast Orlando.

Those efforts were bolstered in March, when the state university system's board of governors approved UCF's plans for a medical school. Now the university can break ground on its Burnett College of Biomedical Sciences, which will rise on land donated by Tavistock.

In addition, the Burnham Institute, a California-based medical research lab, has announced plans to locate a satellite facility at Lake Nona. The project is expected to generate hundreds of high-paying jobs.

Tying much of the growth together will be Innovation Way, a 5.5-mile stretch of roadway that will run from Avalon Park Boulevard and the UCF area to the Beachline and the entrance to ICP. The long-term vision is the creation of a high-tech corridor along which homes and businesses would cluster.

The first leg of Innovation Way is expected to be completed in 2008, although plans call for it to eventually be extended further southwest, past the Beachline, to the GreeneWay and Narcoossee Road then straight into Orlando International Airport.

WINDERMERE

Nestled among the spring-fed Butler Chain of Lakes, the cozy Town of Windermere, population 2,300, has emerged as the region's new-money address of choice.

With Lake Butler on the west, Lake Down on the east and Lake Bessie on the southeast, Windermere is a verdant peninsula where 317 of 837 homes are on the water. Windermere, or at least the area surrounding it, is also home to some of Central Florida's most upscale new communities.

But although they advertise Windermere addresses, most of these ritzy developments aren't technically in Windermere, much to the chagrin of some locals who object to the alleged misappropriation of the town's proud name.

In fact, Windermere itself is just 689 acres and consists largely of a laid-back retail district with a few mom-and-pop stores and a scattering of older homes lining sandy streets. Those streets remain unpaved, to discourage traffic and prevent runoff from damaging the Butler Chain, which consists of eight pristine lakes connected by a canal system.

The lakes attracted one of Windermere's first investors, Joseph Hill Scott, an English clergyman who in 1885 bought 150 acres. Scott's son, Stanley, homesteaded the property and supposedly named it after Lake Windermere in England.

The railroad connected Windermere and Kissimmee in 1889, but freezes in 1894 and 1895 destroyed the town's citrus industry. Little changed until 1910, when a pair of Ohio investors named D.H. Johnson and J. Calvin Palmer bought all the land they could piece together and formed the Windermere Improvement Company for the purpose of developing it.

The pair promoted "Beautiful Lakes of Pure Spring Water" and aimed their marketing at moneyed Northerners.

Although few who live here want to see the town change significantly, Windermere city officials are making concessions to the growth surrounding it. The town recently completed a $2.5 million public works project-the largest in its history-to revamp the downtown area, bricking three blocks of Main and Frontage streets, expanding parking lots, replacing stop signs with roundabouts and generally upgrading its appearance.

And developer Kevin Azzouz, who in 2003 purchased much of the property in the business district, has talked about creating a town center, much to the consternation of those who like downtown's unpretentious combination of shabby and chic. In fact, at this writing, Azzouz and city officials remain at odds over the proposed project.

WINTER GARDEN

It was 1857 when Becky Roper Stafford's great-great-grandfather first glimpsed Lake Apopka. W.C. Roper was riding through the backwoods of west Orlando" target="_blank">Orange County on horseback, seeking a place to build a home for his family waiting back in Merriwether County, Ga.

Roper bought 600 acres along the shore, between present-day Winter Garden and Oakland, and returned a year later with his wife and 10 children. The ambitious settler operated a sawmill, gristmill, sugar mill and cotton gin. Later he built a tannery for making shoes, and served as Orlando" target="_blank">Orange County's superintendent of schools from 1873 to 1877.

Fast-forward to the 1920s, when Roper's son Frank planted the area's first orange trees, marking the humble beginnings of an industry that would sustain and define Winter Garden, which had been incorporated in 1903, for the next six decades.

Winter Garden remained an idyllic small town throughout World War II and into the 1950s and '60s. Far removed from Orlando, which was about to be reshaped by Disney World, the city remained self-sufficient and unpretentious.

"Winter Garden was the quintessential vibrant small town," says Stafford. "We had the distinction of being the only town with two train depots, because it was such a busy shipping community with fresh fruit going all over the world."

Fast-forward again to the 1980s, when devastating freezes destroyed thousands of acres of citrus. Roper Growers Cooperative, Heller Brothers and Louis Dreyfus Citrus eventually recovered. But as growers regrouped or retreated, once-bustling downtown Winter Garden became a virtual ghost town.

Concurrently developers began buying up decimated groves for new homes, creating new subdivisions seemingly overnight. But most of the residential growth, and the retail growth that followed, was outside the city, which made Winter Garden proper even more of an anachronism.

Then came a brilliant project called Rails to Trails, through which abandoned rail beds across the country were converted into hiking and biking trails.

The popular West Orange Trail passed directly through Winter Garden, thus converting the all-but-forgotten city into an oasis for thousands of ready-to-spend strollers. In fact, city officials estimate that the trail is responsible for generating about 50,000 downtown visitors per month.

And most are charmed by what they see. In 2001 the tired downtown district underwent a facelift. Brick streets were restored, old buildings were remodeled, and Centennial Fountain, saluting the city's citrus-growing heritage, was constructed.

Today locals and outlanders gather at Choctaw Willie's in the reopened Edgewater Hotel for barbecue, collard greens and sweet tea. Just down the street, Winter Garden Pizza Factory is all about pasta, fresh pies and family fun.

Proprietor-owned shops like JR's Attic and the Downtown Herb Shoppe are thriving. But you'll still find a wonderfully cluttered hardware store that sells farming supplies, serving as a reminder that this town's quaintness isn't contrived.

And locals proudly note that Winter Garden has two historical museums open seven days a week. There's the Central Florida Railroad Museum and the Heritage Museum, both housed in restored depots. History buffs may also stroll around the city and view such landmarks as the 1860s-era Beulah Baptist Church.

And redevelopment is on a roll: Stafford is hard at work with the Winter Garden Heritage Foundation to renovate the historic Garden Theater on Plant Street, which will become a 300-seat performing arts center.

While the old downtown is re-emerging as a force to be reckoned with, several miles south a 1.15-million-square-foot open-air mall called Winter Garden Village at Fowler Groves is set to open late this summer.

More than 40 new home communities are currently under way within Winter Garden's corporate limits. And the city plans to annex a large tract of mostly undeveloped land from its western boundary south of Florida's Turnpike to the Orlando" target="_blank">Lake County line. The tract contains 1,300 developable acres that could eventually contain 3,600 homes.

To the south of downtown, along C.R. 535 and S.R. 545, communities totaling 25,000 homes are expected to be built where citrus groves once flourished.

The biggest of the new developments is Horizon West, a 38,000-acre master-planned community that has been in the planning stages for a decade. At buildout, its two villages-Bridgewater and Lakeside-will contain nearly 18,000 homes.

Horizon West developers and builders, worried that a lack of schools and roads could slow the project, have proposed two novel plans to keep things rolling.

First, a homebuilding consortium has offered to lend Orlando" target="_blank">Orange County Public Schools $32 million to build a middle school two years ahead of schedule-and to pay $2.9 million in fees and interest until the loans can be paid off.

Second, Grosse Pointe Development Company is paying close to $6 million to develop a connector road to link Fiquette Road to the Horizon West Town Center and C.R. 545.

Further opening up the area to development will be an extension of S.R. 429, which eventually will stretch from Apopka to I-4 just west of Disney World.

WINTER PARK

Once a haven for artists, writers and some of the most influential families in the country, Winter Park was promoted in the late 1800s as a refuge for "the cultured and wealthy." Those early boosters would almost certainly be pleased to see how it all turned out.

Today, the city is home to 70 parks and nearly as many oak trees (20,000) as residents (24,090). Its eight square miles encompass lovely old homes, an upscale shopping district, a prestigious liberal arts college, a plethora of galleries and museums and street signs that admonish motorists to "drive with extraordinary care."

The heart of Winter Park is Park Avenue, stretching 10 blocks and boasting more than 100 shops, from upscale national retailers to one-of-a-kind boutiques. The Avenue, as locals call it, is a European-inspired thoroughfare featuring hidden courtyards, sidewalk cafZs and a charming Central Park facing the storefronts.

In addition, the downtown shopping district has begun to spread west on New England Avenue as developer Dan Bellows builds posh apartments and retail stores in previously blighted areas.

On the south end of Park Avenue is the Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art, showcasing the world's largest collection of Tiffany glass. Each Christmas a set of priceless, holiday-themed Tiffany windows are moved to Central Park, where they're displayed as part of the city's seasonal festivities.

Several blocks farther west is Winter Park Village, a red-hot retail and entertainment center on U.S. 17-92. New condominiums are available in the Village, which attracts a generally younger crowd than Park Avenue and has emerged as one of Central Florida's most popular see-and-be-seen destinations.

Year-round the city is alive with festivals and special events, from the Sidewalk Art Festival, drawing more than 250,000 guests each spring, to the Exotic Car Show and assorted celebrations in Central Park.

On the shores of Lake Virginia, beautiful Rollins College, the oldest institution of higher education in Florida and one of the top-rated private liberal arts colleges in the country, is home to the Cornell Fine Arts Museum and the internationally renowned Bach Festival Choir.

Incongruous as it may sound, Winter Park also hosts a Saturday morning farmers' market, where visitors can buy everything from fresh produce to houseplants and crafts.

Although the city was essentially built out decades ago, several infill projects offer new homes in older neighborhoods. The largest new single-family home development is Windsong, carved from heavily forested lakefront property once owned by the estate of philanthropists Hugh McKean and his wife, Jeanette Genius McKean.

The property adjacent to Windsong, where Glenridge Middle School once stood, is being incorporated into the development despite the objections of residents who had hoped the city-owned land could become a park.

Still, high-end condos account for most new residential construction in Winter Park. More than 500 apartments, condos and hotel rooms are either under construction or moving through the approval process.

To see Winter Park as it should be seen, shell out five bucks and take a guided tour along the Winter Park Chain of Lakes. Scenic Boat Tours, headquartered at Dinky Dock near Rollins College, has been cruising these canals since 1938, offering regular folks a chance to peek into the back yards of the rich and occasionally famous.

SEMINOLE COUNTY AT A GLANCE

LAND AREA: 298 square miles
PERSONS PER SQUARE MILE: 1,383.2
POPULATION: 412,180
POPULATION INCREASE (1990-2005): 43%
2006 PROJECTED POPULATION: 421,091
MEAN TRAVEL TIME TO WORK: 27.0 minutes
MEDIAN HOUSEHOLD INCOME: $49,199
FACTOID: Henry Sanford, the founder of Sanford, was a man well ahead of his time. On his land, Sanford developed a citrus grove and experimental garden called Belair. Also, in 1880 he formed the Florida Land Colonization Co. in London to encourage investment in Seminole County.

ALTAMONTE SPRINGS

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 42,300, 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 manmade lake.

Uptown Altamonte, a $250 million partnership between the city's Community Redevelopment Agency and Unicorp National Developments, will encompass 1.5 million square feet of retail space, offices and condominiums.

And 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.

CASSELBERRY

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.

This quintessential bedroom community had been set to reclaim its distinctive identity with a 16-acre town center along U.S. 17-92 near City Hall. But the developer, Unicorp, recently terminated its contract to buy the property, citing a softening real estate market.

City officials say they're searching for another developer, but at this writing no announcements had been made.

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 will contain 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.

The community, which has floundered somewhat in recent years, is in line for a boost thanks to improvements on U.S. 17-92, which will include wider sidewalks and decorative streetlights. And a long-abandoned Kmart plaza fronting the highway may soon be bought and redeveloped by the home-improvement chain Lowe's.

LAKE MARY

Lake Mary is one of Central Florida's hottest growth areas, thanks in large 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 an 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 that 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.

Of course, all those high-paid techies who now call Lake Mary home require upscale housing, which is easily found through an array of gated golf course communities loaded with swim and tennis clubs, private lakes and jogging trails through nature preserves.

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.

Yet another Lake Mary town center is under way at Colonial Town Park, a 175-acre mixed-use development at a new I-4 interchange. The development features shops, restaurants and apartments in a village setting.

LONGWOOD

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 line 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 C.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 Orlando" target="_blank">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

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 1860s, 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.

Then, after the railroad arrived in 1886, the town became a major shipping point for both celery and citrus. Among the early settlers was Andrew Duda Sr., who made his fortune growing celery and founded A. Duda and Sons, today one of the world's largest growers of sod.

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 Orlando" target="_blank">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.

Others, however, are all for the project, noting that the old downtown isn't particularly quaint or even historic. Indeed, for those just passing through who are forced to stop at the gnarly intersection of state roads 419, 426 and 434, there's not a lot to catch the eye: the Town House restaurant, a huge Baptist church and a two-block row of fading cinder-block buildings housing an assortment of mom-and-pop businesses.

Drivers must take care to avoid chickens, unofficial city mascots who wander aimlessly across the streets and watch passers-by from the sidewalks and rights-of-way. The chickens are said to have arrived-no one knows how-sometime in the 1970s and have adopted the old downtown as their own.

Although city officials say they're also committed to revitalizing the original downtown, how that will be accomplished is a big question. In fact, many of the old buildings may end up being demolished as a result of the widening of state roads 426 and 419.

Take the time to wander the side streets, however, and an altogether different picture of Oviedo emerges, one of gracious old homes, rolling grass lawns and moss-shrouded oak trees. Indeed, the Oviedo Historical Trail lists no fewer than 85 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, all of which received A's when the state Department of Education handed out grades last summer.

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

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 38,300. 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.

Sanford's first permanent settlement was Camp Monroe, a fort on the south bank of Lake Monroe built in 1836 to protect settlers from Indians. A year later Capt. Charles Mellon was killed during an Indian attack, so the garrison was renamed in his honor.

The community that grew up around the fort became known as Mellonville, and in 1845 was named the county seat of what was then Orlando" target="_blank">Orange County. (Seminole County was carved out in 1913.)

Because Lake Monroe provided easy access to the St. Johns River for shipping to other Florida markets, citrus growing developed as a major industry.

In 1870 Gen. Henry S. Sanford, former minister to Belgium, purchased approximately 12,500 acres and laid out a town, which he named for himself, just west of Fort Mellon.

Ten years later, ground was broken for the South Florida Railroad connecting Mellonville, Lake Mary, Longwood and Altamonte Springs with Jacksonville, the state's most important port city. It seemed that big things were in store in 1883, when Mellonville was absorbed by Sanford.

However, late in the decade a fire destroyed numerous buildings, and residents were hit with a yellow-fever epidemic. Those disasters, on top of freezes that ravaged the citrus crops, caused Sanford's population to dip from 5,000 to 2,000. Vegetables, especially cold-resistant celery, later became the city's most important cash crop.

Seminole County's suburban growth in the 1960s and '70s mostly passed Sanford by, and the once-beautiful city became a bit shabby.

Today, however, 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 fact, airport adjacency was the catalyst behind Cameron Heights, a 261-acre master-planned community that was granted preliminary approval by the county commission in February. The proposed project will contain around 1,000 homes a