Wolf Branch Innovation District

The Wolf Branch Innovation District (WBID) is a planned 850 acre mixed-use employment center located on SR 46 near the Wekiva Parkway. The vision for this corridor is to create job and educational facilities within our community, making Mount Dora an even better place to live, work, play and do business. The City of Mount Dora and Lake County have collaboratively designed this project for almost 20 years in preparation of future growth. The intent of this employment center is to create jobs and educational facilities within the community, thus providing opportunities to retain local workforce in proximity to housing.

Terms Defined

  • Mixed-Use: a zoning classification that blends multiple uses, such as residential, commercial, cultural, institutional, or entertainment, into one space, where those functions are to some degree physically and functionally integrated, and that provides pedestrian connections.
  • Corridor: integrated networks of infrastructure within a geographical area designed to stimulate economic development. 
  • Employment Center: a variety of office uses, light industrial, multi-family residential, and limited commercial uses that support office uses. This category is intended to accommodate employment development which exhibits a high level of site and building amenities to include extensive landscaping, plazas and pedestrian/employee-friendly gathering areas, central building entrances, enhanced building and site security features, and accessory uses included within the building footprint.
  • PUD (Planned Unit Development): an area of land devoted by its owner to development as a single entity for a number of dwelling units and/or other uses in accordance with a plan which does not necessarily comply with the provisions of other zoning districts with respect to lot size, lot coverage, setbacks, off-street parking, bulk or type of dwelling, density and other restrictions.
  • JPA (Joint Planning Agreement): An Agreement among the government bodies of a county and a municipality or multiple municipalities which identifies unincorporated areas adjacent to incorporated municipalities for inclusion as part of the municipal jurisdiction for purposes of joint and consistent action in the preparation and application of the comprehensive plan, procedures for administration of land development regulations and the land development code applicable to the “included” area.

City of Mount Dora

JPA Lake County Projects (Future Annexation)

Information on other developments surrounding the WBID can be found here.

History

The City of Mount Dora and Lake County adopted a joint Implementation Plan of the Wolf Branch Innovation District. Levey Consulting Group was authorized to prepare the study materials and recommendations. The consultant worked with elected officials, City and County staff, property owners, stakeholders and the public in the study area. The study started in January 2018 and was adopted by City Council on November 5, 2019. A community stakeholders meeting was held on February 28, 2019 to preview the conceptual land use plan and highlight other study graphics and information within the study area and adjacent areas. Quarterly updates have been provided to both the Mount Dora City Council and the Lake County Board of County Commissioners.  

The Wolf Branch Implementation Plan updates and revises the prior planning documents from 2013-14 prepared by the City of Mount Dora and also makes recommendations that will require modifications to both the City and County Comprehensive Plans and Land Development Codes and other codes to support the implementation plan recommendations. 

WBID Rendering

Implementation Plan Status

Design Standards & Guidelines

Placemaking is the process of designing places that people find desirous to live and work, resulting in a high-quality built environment.  Successful placemaking establishes locations that attract residents, businesses, and institutions that are all uniquely connected by a common identity.  The disciplines of architecture, urban design, and landscape architecture are used to create high quality places. 

Design Guidelines for Wolf Branch Innovation District and the Gateway within are intended to implement the character of place that has been identified in the Strategy Report.  The approach taken in these guidelines will direct the form and character of development to achieve the overall objectives of the Master Plan, by using the most relevant principles of architecture, urban design, and landscape architecture.

Vista Ridge Drive 

The success of the Wolf Branch Innovation District is subject to a number of factors, including the ability of residents, employees, and visitors to have ease of movement to and through the study area.  As a result, overall mobility was a high priority during the planning process.  The Concept Plan contains a recommended secondary roadway network designed to provide a robust level of movement for vehicular traffic.

The construction of Vista Ridge Drive is a key component in the mobility and connectivity strategies for the development of the land abutting the Wolf Branch Innovation District.

This proposed road would:

  1. Provide a parallel roadway facility as an alternative to SR 46;
  2. Connect Round Lake Road and Niles Road;
  3. Provide an opportunity to expand the Wekiva Trail; and
  4. Provide an additional direct access to the Wolf Branch Innovation District 

The recommended alignment will serve as the basis for additional alignment engineering studies and ultimate design/construction.

Vista Ridge Drive Recommended Alignment

Innovation Trail

In addition to roadways, the Concept Plan includes an area-wide multi-use trail system to provide a unique amenity system and alternative means of moving people throughout the study area and to and from the Wolf Branch Innovation District.

Innovation Trail Planning Study was completed in December 2020 and proposes a 6.5-mile multi-use neighborhood trail that would provide enhanced bicycle and pedestrian connection between the existing Tremain Street Greenway in downtown Mount Dora, the planned Sorrento Avenue Trail (at County Road 437/Plymouth Sorrento Road), and the future development in the Wolf Branch Innovation District to the other Wekiva Trail segments. With the completion of the Wekiva Trail, this project will complete a trail loop serving the greater Mount Dora area.

Innovation and Wekiva Trail Map Wekiva Trail

The PD&E study for segment 1 of the Wekiva Trail extension was completed in 2017. Lake County is conducting a PD&E study for segment 5 of the regional Wekiva Trail. The intent of this trail is to plan for the construction of a non-motorized, multi-use trail between the cities of Tavares and Mount Dora. The City of Mount Dora, in cooperation with Lake County and City of Tavares, submitted a Federal RAISE grant application in April 2021 for design and construction of both segments 1 and 5.

Wekiva Trail Segements 1 and 5