"There is vacant land there, and it is adjacent to the Turnpike -- it has great transportation access," Keedy said.

That is good news for the county and Groveland. Both are hungry for economic development to bring in extra tax dollars and higher-paying jobs. They also want to diversify the tax base, lessening each government's heavy dependence on residential property taxes.

Land in and around the county industrial park is selling fast. Georgia-based Flowers Foods Inc. recently considered building a bakery there before choosing another location in Lakeland.

IDI Inc. is moving ahead with construction of the Lakeview Distribution Center, a 359,290-square-foot building on 47 acres in the industrial park. The company later could expand the site or construct a second building, bringing the total space to more than 730,000 square feet -- more space than three Wal-Mart supercenters.

California-based Niagara Bottling Co. is setting up a large water bottling facility inside a $15 million, 291,000-square-foot building formerly used by Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. at the county industrial park.

However, the county and many local governments and residents oppose that company's request to withdraw 177 million gallons of fresh water from the ground every year. The proposal comes as a looming water shortage could force utilities to spend millions of dollars to pipe in extra water from outside this area.

Brightleaf's annexation request to Groveland is not unusual. Many large landowners are jumping to the cities to get land-use changes. Lake County is updating its comprehensive development plan and has been forced by the state to hold up major plan changes requested by landowners.

Groveland has annexed a series of large properties in recent years and approved more than 6,000 future homes.

The Cherry Lake Tree Farm wants to redevelop about 1,083 acres on State Road 19 and Cherry Lake Road into a large community of 3,300 homes and 340,000 square feet of commercial and office space.

The development is in the unincorporated area of the county, and tree-farm owner IMG Enterprises tried several times to annex into Groveland.

IMG eventually halted efforts because the proposed annexation could create a huge enclave -- an area of the county surrounded by city limits -- that is not allowed under state law.

Nearby Mascotte also has annexed a huge part of the county map.

Most recently that city took in two properties totaling 3.4 square miles that include the 1,000-acre Marian Gardens Tree Farm near State Road 50.

Minneola annexed nearly three square miles of land proposed for the Hills of Minneola, a community with almost 4,000 homes, as well as parks, schools, government facilities and about 3 million square feet of retail outlets, offices and industrial buildings.

The city also annexed a site where the 2,200-home Sugarloaf Mountain community is under construction.


Robert Sargent can be reached at rsargent@orlandosentinel.com or 352-742-5909.