Lake Nona: A developing city, a new community

Milin Huang

1/12/2015

As the sun sheds its setting rays, the sunlight fades away over the newly built community of Lake Nona, FL, glimmering brightly.

Lake Nona Veteran's Association Medical Center

A modest house in the Lake Nona neighborhoods.

Lake Nona is designed and developed by Lake Nona Property Holdings, which is owned by Tavistock Group, a private equity company headquartered in the Bahamas. Also nicknamed “Medical City”, new, essentially community buildings have begun to spring up around the area, including schools, apartments, parks, and even a Veteran’s Association Medical Center and a Children’s Hospital.

There are many large houses in the area ranging from $200,000 to over $1 million, and compared to other nearby neighborhoods, houses are generally situated much closer together, with smaller private yards, and larger public community spaces.  People who prefer living in apartments, also have the choice of selecting to live in premium luxury apartments.

UCF has a Health Sciences Campus located within Lake Nona.

The area is host to several schools catering to all age groups, including, the Primrose School for the youngest of young, a Middle School and High School, the UCF College of Medicine and Health Sciences Campus, and a Valencia campus, among others. 

Lake Nona also contains Mud Lake, Red Lake, and Buck Lake.

The Lake Nona community and country club are surrounded by lakes, such as the lake giving the community its namesake, Lake Nona, and some other nearby lakes such as Mud Lake, Red Lake, and Buck Lake.  Lake Nona even includes a dock where residents can launch their boats into the lake to enjoy a day on the water.

Lake Nona has convenient access to Orlando's major roads.

Located at the south-eastern corner of Orlando, Lake Nona is conveniently accessible via the Central Florida GreeneWay (State Road 417), which provides quick access to other major arteries around Florida, such as the North-South Ronald Reagan Turnpike, and the East-West Martin Andersen Beachline Expressway (State Road 528).  

Lake Nona uses modern technology to ensure that cellular service is available everywhere. Some people have even reported seeing better signal indoors than outdoors. People around the city and especially inside the medical centers rely on a highly available cellular network in order to communicate throughout the buildings seamlessly.  In a city labeled “medical city”, the availability of the cellular network is crucial to provide the best service.

As a proxy city of Orlando, people might say that Lake Nona’s ideal city plans remind them of Sir Ebenezer Howard’s “Garden City Movement”.  The Garden City Movement was devised by Howard to address the problems of the rapidly industrializing London.  City dwellers living in the city center were generally deprived of the natural world, living in dark, cramped, and filthy conditions.  A need was growing to reform this system and thus he proposed to build smaller “cities” around the perimeter of the downtown.  As these cities would be further away, residents would be able to benefit from living closer to nature in a small community, a size of which he recommended no more than 32,000 residents.  

Map of Lake Nona and the nearby surrounding areas.

Thus, Lake Nona, too, follows these principals.  The transportation network allows residents to access the Orlando city center fairly conveniently, not to mention, very convenient access to the airport.  The city is a fully enclosed community containing all the necessary essentials for community functions, and at the outskirts of Orlando’s perimetry, is surrounded by large open green spaces.

Cow grazes a field nearby housing developments in Lake Nona.

In addition to the elements that point to Howard’s Garden City, Lake Nona is also special because it is a health city.  Residents are encouraged to follow a healthy lifestyle and as such, the city has been planning to allow residents easy access to large sidewalks and many parks.  Residents are frequently seen moving around town in bicycles, running, and walking with their families.  The city is planning to build 44 miles of both paved and unpaved trail ways in order to encourage residents to go outside.

Along with the city development and a growing population around Orlando, there are many surrounding communities such as Winter Park, Winter Garden, Avalon Park, Hunter’s Creek, Moss Park, etc… 

Crepuscular rays shine down upon Lake Nona fields and lakes.

The sun has gone, and you are driving back home, and through the window, the splendor of Lake Nona and its incredible light filled, majestic buildings fill you with a sensation of wonder and excitement for the future of this community.