Be first in line

Collins Reserve Phase 2, St. Cloud, Florida

Seventeen or eighteen acreage homesites on about thirty-three acres of the rural corridor east of St. Cloud, approved by the county commission and stormwater-permitted, with no plat recorded and not one lot sold yet. There is no builder here and there is not supposed to be: this is a lot-sale subdivision, where you buy the ground and hire your own custom builder. That makes it a very different purchase from a production community, with a different set of costs and a different set of risks, and almost none of them are obvious from the outside. This page is what the public record establishes, what it does not, and what buying a rural Florida acreage lot actually involves.

Join the interest list

What is actually on record

Two approvals, either of which would be enough on its own. The county commission approved the preliminary subdivision plan in summer 2025, as a recorded board vote rather than a staff or planning-commission recommendation. And a state water management district stormwater permit was issued in January 2026, as an individual permit for residential use with a five-year term, with a notice of it recorded in the county records later that month.

The project is also demonstrably still alive rather than shelved, which is the thing most worth checking on a small private subdivision. In mid-2026 the county commission signed a development agreement with the owner covering a right-of-way dedication along the frontage, citing both the subdivision plan and a site development plan. That is continuing county action a full year after the original approval. The land itself is not listed for sale.

What has not happened is just as clear. No plat has recorded for this phase, so there are no legal homesites yet, no street names and no addresses. A search of the county clerk's records for this subdivision across the last six years returns only four instruments in total: the earlier phase's plat, a joinder, the 2025 purchase deed, and the stormwater notice. There is not a single conveyance out to an individual buyer, which is the cleanest possible confirmation that nothing has been sold. No price, no release date and no sales process has been published anywhere.

One point of lineage worth knowing, because it explains the name. This phase is not a separate piece of land assembled next to the first one. It is one of the lots created by the earlier Collins Reserve plat, now being re-subdivided. The family that owned the farm sold it to a private St. Cloud developer in 2025, and that developer is the one taking it through the county.

How many lots, how big, and why the obvious arithmetic is wrong

The county's own documents do not agree on the lot count. The 2025 approval records describe eighteen lots, with the number of common tracts stated differently in different documents. The mid-2026 development agreement refers to a seventeen-lot residential subdivision. Both are county records, the later one is later, and we are not going to pretend a single number is settled. Expect seventeen or eighteen.

Lot sizes have not been published at all, and this is where you should be most careful, because the tempting calculation gives a badly misleading answer. Dividing thirty-three acres by eighteen lots produces something close to an acre and three quarters, and that number will not survive contact with the site. The county appraiser's own land breakdown codes roughly ten acres of this parcel as swamp and marsh and another nine as native land, with under thirteen acres classed as improved. The stormwater permit covers under fourteen acres of the thirty-three. Subtract common tracts and an internal road from what is left, and the buildable residue is a long way below the gross figure.

In practice that means one of two things, and you should establish which before you buy: either the lots are materially smaller than a gross division suggests and clustered on the drier ground, or they are large on paper but include wetland you cannot build on, clear or fill. Those are very different purchases at the same stated acreage, so ask for the layout exhibit and the wetland line, not just the lot size. The earlier phase is a useful check: its seven lots run from about three quarters of an acre to a little over two, most around four fifths, so anyone calling this a continuation of large estate lots is inventing a pattern the first phase does not show.

The zoning does not protect what you think it protects

The land is zoned Rural Settlement, and the name does a lot of work that the rules do not. In that district the minimum lot area is a quarter of an acre and the maximum density is two homes to the acre. At the district maximum this thirty-three acres could have carried something in the region of sixty-six units. Seventeen or eighteen lots is roughly a quarter of what the zoning permits, and it is the developer's choice, not a protection written into the code.

That matters in both directions and it is the single most useful thing on this page. On the upside, a low-density layout in a district that permits far more is genuinely a nicer product than the zoning requires. On the downside, nothing in the zoning stops the land around you, or in principle a future owner of a lot here, from being developed more intensively, and the county manager can approve a limited number of splits of a parent parcel where the minimum lot size and density are met. If you are paying for space, understand that you are paying the developer for a layout decision rather than buying a zoning guarantee.

The same district also permits things that suburban buyers do not always expect from a neighbor: livestock and grazing animals, barns and agricultural buildings, groves and farms, accessory living units that do not count against density, and manufactured or modular homes. Front, rear and side setbacks are modest and buildings can go to three stories. None of that is a defect, it is what rural zoning is for, but it is the character of the place and you should want it rather than tolerate it. The surrounding streets are exactly this: acre lots on wells and septic systems, several with manufactured homes, and agricultural land beyond.

Water and sewer: a code prohibition, not a waiting game

This is the cost item most likely to be missed, and it is permanent. The site lies outside the county's urban growth boundary, which we confirmed by query rather than assumption. The county's land development code prohibits extending central sanitary sewer outside that boundary. Not deprioritises, not eventually: prohibits. Residential sewage out here is served by a package treatment plant or by private systems for each home, and water by either a public well serving the development or private wells serving each house.

The ground confirms it. Every neighboring property we checked in the county's health-department-sourced records reads as being on both a known septic system and a known well. The parent parcel itself carries a limited-use well dating from the mid-1990s rather than any utility connection.

For a buyer that means two real five-figure items on top of the house: a well with its pump, pressure tank and treatment, and an onsite septic system sized and sited to the soil and the water table. On land with ten acres of mapped swamp and marsh, the drainfield question is not academic, and the cost and feasibility of a septic system can vary sharply from one lot to another on the same parcel. Whether Phase 2 will be served by individual wells or by one development well is not established, and the answer changes your budget materially. Get a soil and site evaluation for the specific lot before you close, not after.

The road at the front door, and what is planned for it

Here is the fact that nobody marketing lots out here is likely to lead with, and it cuts both ways. Old Melbourne Highway, the road this subdivision fronts, is the planned route of the future Sunbridge Parkway, a four-lane divided county parkway. We know this is real rather than speculative because the development agreement the county signed in mid-2026 names it in those terms and requires the developer to dedicate additional right of way along the frontage, plus a drainage easement, as a condition of approval.

The extension has finished its project development and environment study, was approved by the county in mid-2026, and has right-of-way acquisition programmed for the late 2020s with construction programmed for around 2030. So a buyer here should expect the quiet two-lane lane out front to become a significant divided arterial within the likely life of their ownership.

Whether that is good or bad depends on what you want. A parkway brings access, and access in this corridor is what moves land values. It also brings traffic, noise and headlights to a road that carries very little today, though the frontage segment has already risen about two thirds between 2020 and 2025 from a genuinely low base.

On the wider commute, be realistic: the lane is quiet, the roads it feeds are not. The highway west into St. Cloud and on toward Kissimmee carried close to forty-nine thousand vehicles a day in 2025, and the route north toward Lake Nona and the Orlando expressways between thirty-seven and thirty-nine thousand. The parkway is the county's answer to them. We publish no drive times because we could not verify any; drive both routes at the hour you actually would. One detail we report without over-reading: the large parcel across the highway is county-owned, which may be parkway right of way, but we could not establish it.

Flood, wetland, and the difference between them

Queried across the whole parcel rather than at a single point, this site is mapped entirely outside the special flood hazard area, in the category the federal maps describe as minimal flood hazard, and the county's own flood mapping agrees. So a federally backed lender would not require flood insurance here.

Do not let that settle the water question, because it answers a different one. Federal flood maps model regional flooding. They say nothing about the roughly ten acres of this parcel that the county appraiser codes as swamp and marsh. That is a wetland and drainage matter, and it bears on which parts of which lots are buildable, where a drainfield can go, what permitting a buyer might need to clear or fill, and how the site drains in a wet summer. The stormwater permit covering under fourteen acres of the thirty-three is the clearest numerical signal that a substantial share of this land is not developable. Treat the flood map as good news about insurance and the wetland coding as a question about your specific lot.

On homeowners and windstorm insurance we have no verified figure for this area and will not estimate one. Central Florida is better placed than the coasts and a new house built to the current code prices better than older stock, but Florida premiums are volatile and a custom home's cost depends on choices that have not been made yet.

Taxes, the agricultural classification, and a trap

We are not publishing a millage rate, because we could not verify the current combined rate for this specific unincorporated location, and a wrong tax rate on a page like this is actively harmful. The right source is the parcel's own annual notice of proposed property taxes, which lists every levy reaching the address and itemises non-ad-valorem assessments separately. Florida's homestead exemption is set in state law and applies statewide rather than varying by county.

Now the trap specific to this property. The land carries a Florida agricultural classification. Its market value on the 2026 roll is a little over eight hundred thousand dollars while its assessed value is under two hundred thousand, because the agricultural credit removes the difference, and that classification will not survive platting. So the tax figure you can look up today bears no relationship to what a homesite here will be taxed at, and anyone quoting it as a guide is misleading you. Layer on the usual sequence: your first bill after buying a vacant lot is land-only, and once a custom house is on the roll it can multiply several times over, with the timing less predictable than in a production community because the construction schedule is yours. Budget for the finished-house figure from the start.

On special districts, the honest version. We could not locate any community development district established for this subdivision: no district entity, no establishing ordinance across the county agendas we pulled, and none named on the county's own district listing. We checked that the prescribed way rather than by reading a tax code, which cannot answer the question because district assessments are not levied on value. One loose end remains and we will not paper over it: the parcel records carry a district attribute referring to a northeast improvement district, and we could not establish what, if anything, it levies. Read the parcel's own notice.

What the earlier phase tells you about money

Because no Phase 2 price exists, the only honest guide is what happened next door, clearly labelled as the earlier phase and not as a forecast. Its lots sold to individual buyers between 2021 and 2022 in a range from roughly ninety-five thousand to a hundred and twenty thousand dollars, and each of those buyers then built a one-off house. Finished houses in that phase have since changed hands at around six hundred and seventy thousand dollars, with one resale closing at that level in mid-2025 and another listed and still active into 2026.

Read those carefully: they are four and five years old on the lot side, from a different phase, and the land market has moved since, so they are a floor for expectations rather than a prediction. What they tell you reliably is the shape of the thing, a market where the lot is a meaningful fraction of finished value and the end product is a substantial custom house rather than an entry-level one.

What has not been released

Plainly. No plat has recorded, so no street names, no addresses and no legal homesites. No lot price, price range or release date. No sales process and no named contact. No lot dimensions, acreages or layout exhibit. No declaration of covenants, no association, no dues, and no architectural standards. No answer on individual wells versus a development well. No published status for the site development plan named in the development agreement. And no established effect for the improvement district attribute on the parcel.

Those are genuine unknowns rather than omissions, and on a lot-sale subdivision they are exactly the things that decide whether a homesite suits you. Get notified and you will hear them from us as they are confirmed.

Buying a lot and building custom, honestly

This is a genuinely different transaction from buying a house from a builder, and the differences are not all in your favor. You carry the risks a production builder normally absorbs: site conditions, well and septic feasibility, permit timing, construction cost inflation between your budget and your final draw, and the gap between buying the land and having somewhere to live. Financing works differently too, because a lot purchase and a construction loan are not a mortgage on a finished house, and the deposit, draw schedule and interest during construction all come out of your pocket in a different order.

What you get in exchange is real: you choose the builder rather than inheriting one, you choose the house rather than a brochure plan, and on acreage you choose where on the lot it sits. The practical sequence matters. Get the soil and site evaluation and the septic feasibility before you close, as a condition, not after. Establish the wetland line and the buildable envelope in writing. Price the well, septic, driveway, power connection and any required stormwater work as a package, because on rural acreage those site costs routinely run well into five figures. And have your own representation review the lot contract, because a contract from a small private developer is a bespoke document, not a standard form.

Questions worth asking

Keep this list for the day lots are released. How many lots are there finally, and may I see the recorded plat and the lot layout? What is the buildable envelope on this specific lot once the wetland line and setbacks are applied? Is the lot served by an individual well or a development well, and who owns and maintains it? Has a septic feasibility evaluation been done for this lot, and may I see it? Will there be a declaration of covenants, an association and dues, and may I see the draft? Are there architectural standards or a minimum house size? Who is responsible for the internal road, and is it public or private? What stormwater or drainage obligations attach to my lot? What is the status of the parkway right of way along the frontage and how close will the built lanes come? And what is the improvement district on the parcel records, and does it assess anything?

Schools

The site is served by the School District of Osceola County, which is a single countywide district. School concurrency was reviewed as part of the subdivision approval. We deliberately do not name or rate individual schools: there are no addresses here yet to run against an attendance locator, boundaries for an unbuilt subdivision are not settled, and the district adjusts them. Confirm assignment with the district directly once addresses exist.

The honest tradeoffs

The case for is specific. The approval is a real commission vote rather than a recommendation, the stormwater permit is issued, and the county was still actively transacting with the owner a year later, so this is not a stalled entitlement. The earlier phase proves the model works here: lots conveyed to individual buyers who built substantial custom houses that now resell well. The site is mapped outside the flood hazard area. Electric service is already in the corridor. And the parkway coming to the frontage is a genuine long-term access story in a growth corridor between St. Cloud and the Lake Nona side of Orange County.

The case against is equally specific. There is no sewer and there never will be, by code. Roughly a third of the site is wetland and the buildable area is well under the gross acreage, so lot sizes may disappoint or may include land you cannot use. The zoning that sounds protective is not, and permits livestock, manufactured homes and a density several times what is proposed. The road at the front door is going to become a four-lane divided parkway. No covenants exist yet, so neither the constraints nor the protections are known. No plat, no price and no sales process exist. And with no production builder there is no model to walk, no warranty package and no one else carrying the construction risk.

For the right buyer, someone who actively wants acreage, a custom house and a rural setting and who goes in with their eyes open about wells, septic and the parkway, this is a credible and unusually well-documented opportunity. For a buyer who wants a finished product and a predictable monthly payment, it is the wrong shape of purchase entirely, and that is worth knowing before you spend a Saturday driving out there.

Get on the Collins Reserve Phase 2 interest list

Join and you will hear from us when the plat records, when lot pricing and layouts are released, and when homesites become available to reserve. No cost, and you can leave the list at any time.

How this works, and who we are

Subdiview is a research and referral service. We are licensed in Illinois, not in Florida, and we are not affiliated with the owner or developer of this land, with any builder, or with any association connected to this subdivision. We do not represent buyers in Florida ourselves and we are not your agent in this transaction.

What we do is straightforward. We track approvals, plats, permits and district records for projects like this one, we publish what the record actually establishes, and when you are ready to act we introduce you to a licensed Florida real estate professional who can represent you locally. We are compensated by that professional's brokerage, not by you. You pay us nothing, and you are free to use any agent you like, or none at all.

Common questions

Everything above is drawn from Osceola County, state water management district and county clerk public records as of October 2026, and is published for general information. We did not search civil court dockets for this property. Approvals, timing, lot pricing, utility arrangements and assessments can change. Verify anything you intend to rely on with the county and your own licensed professionals before you commit.