The Town of Dundee is expected to enact a one-year moratorium on new housing developments because of a lack of water for all the residential units that developers have planned.
Dundee, a town of about 6,000 residents nestled on the east side of U.S. 27 between Lake Wales and Haines City, has about 20 proposed housing developments in various stages of the approval process. Those projects, if built out, would add more than 5,000 housing units and possibly double the town’s water usage.
Meanwhile, Dundee is already drawing about 90% of the water allowed under its permit.
During a discussion at Tuesday’s Dundee Commission meeting, a consensus of the board directed the town’s attorney to prepare an ordinance placing a moratorium on new development until water is available.
The ordinance would need to be reviewed – possibly as soon as August – during the regularly scheduled meeting of the town planning and zoning board.
A slew of developers with pending housing developments in Dundee attended Tuesday’s meeting, including Polk County Commissioner George Lindsey, who was there not on county business, but to represent Center State Development LLC.