Gainswave Therapy in West Lake, FL

On a sunny Monday afternoon boat ride on West Lake Tohopekaliga, Captain Steve Niemoeller speeds past rows of large homes with empty docks surrounded by a thick bed of aquatic weeds.

Niemoeller had to reverse his bass boat’s motor every 10 minutes or so to spin off the slimy green vegetation that could otherwise cause him to get stranded on the roughly 20,000 acres of lake.

After 24 years on the lake, he knows how to navigate hydrilla, an invasive Asian weed that grows rapidly in these waters. But those who have less experience don’t fare as well.

“I’ve had to rescue so many Jet Skis out here because they get stuck,” Niemoeller said. “Those people who own those homes don’t have boats anymore because they don’t know how to navigate the hydrilla.”

West Lake Toho, once known as a premier bass fishing lake, is slowly losing its appeal due to the rapidly increasing amount of hydrilla. Osceola County officials are pressing the state for help, but there’s little money available to eradicate the weed.

What’s more, a controversial proposal by state and federal water managers to store more water in the county’s lakes is diverting attention from the battle against hydrilla.

The aquatic plant management department at the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission estimates that roughly 80% of West Lake Toho is inundated with invasive plant species. Hydrilla, a plant believed to have been imported to Florida from Sri Lanka, is plaguing many of the state’s lakes, but West Lake Toho has one of the worst infestations.

“This used to be a popular spot to fish about a year ago but now you can’t even get your boat in there or your line,” Niemoeller said, pointing to a particular spot on the lake where birds now sit easily on the thick hydrilla.

Niemoeller has long made his living off West Lake Toho through his fishing charter and pontoon boat business, but lately he’s worried his livelihood is at stake.

Similarly, Osceola County real estate agent Tim St. Gordon worries homes surrounding the lake are losing their value as boating becomes impractical.

“The lakefront values have already been affected because anyone that lives here understands that West Lake is not a great lake for boating or Jet Skiing,” St.Gordon said. “How many people really want to move their families there and have a home on the lakefront that you can’t enjoy?”

St. Gordon said he has had clients pull out of deals or look at homes in other areas because of the problem.

Osceola county commissioners are worried about hydrilla as well. At a meeting in early March, they discussed creating a working group of local and regional stakeholders to come up with ways to finance the lake’s upkeep.

“Definitely there needs to be more pressure,” Chairperson Cheryl Grieb said. Grieb said she believes the only real solution is to reduce lake levels to eradicate the hydrilla, but that’s a lengthy process.

But pressure has already been applied to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to no avail. In January, FWC biologist Ed Harris told a crowd of Osceola residents that the state’s budget for hydrilla removal has been inadequate for years.

For 2022 through 2023 the FWC budget for ecosystem assessment and restoration was just over $18 million, and that’s not much money when spread throughout the state, FWC spokesperson Kristen Turner said in an email. She said hydrilla management can cost $1,000 per acre during the initial control process.

“Staff are aware of concerns about the level of hydrilla on Lake Toho,” Turner said.

With roughly 20,000 acres, removing hydrilla from the lake would cost roughly $20 million, using Turner’s cost estimate.

But even if more money could be found, stakeholders like the South Florida Water Management District and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have larger concerns than hydrilla removal.

The Corps of Engineers and the district have proposed to raise water levels across Osceola lakes to store more water throughout the year.

The proposal concerned county officials enough that Grieb wrote a letter in February to the Corps of Engineers pleading for lake levels to be lowered instead. While the Corps is focused on water supply, the county is more concerned about limiting flooding and controlling hydrilla.

“This isn’t a hypothetical concern, less than two years ago, Osceola County experienced severe flooding for weeks following the impacts of Hurricane Ian,” the letter said. “Your team on the ground saw first-hand the inability to move water through Lake Tohopekaliga and the Kissimmee Chain of Lakes when water levels were substantially higher.”

In the letter Grieb “urged” the Corps of Engineers to include flood mitigation and water restoration projects in its 2025 work plan and help fund hydrilla removal.

“All of Osceola County’s lakes and rivers are suffering from years of sediment buildup and invasive plant species, resulting in a substantially diminished ability for these waterways to naturally handle any future flood-event waters,” the letter said.

Controlling hydrilla is a balancing act, Niemoeller said. The fish like the vegetation and it helps keep the water clear. But excess hydrilla, he fears, is killing Lake Toho.

“We need some hydrilla but this is way too much,” he said. “I’m surprised the people who bought those homes haven’t complained sooner.”

The City of Westlake temporarily turned aside plans for more fast-food restaurants along Seminole Pratt Whitney Road despite dire warnings from the area’s largest developer, Minto Communities USA, and legal saber-rattling from its attorney.

With Councilwoman Charlotte Leonard not in attendance, the council split 2-2, on a request by Minto and Konover South to amend the master site plan for a portion of the Westlake Landings plaza. The proposal was to change an area set aside for a 2,572-square-foot bank with a drive-through to a fast-food restaurant with a drive-through.

The council later voted 4-0 to table the request until its April meeting.

Minto attorney Kathryn Rossmell asked council members to reconsider.

“We would prefer a denial to a table because that at least gives us an avenue to go forward with a lawsuit,” Rossmell said.

Donaldson Hearing, a landscape architect who frequently represents Minto before the council, said there’s “no basis” for denying a request that is permitted by the city’s master plan.

But Councilman Gary Werner and Councilman Julian Martinez stood their ground during the Tuesday, March 5 meeting before a packed room at the Westlake Adventure Park lodge.

“The master plan says the city is looking for a balance of commercial uses,” said Werner, a retired city planner. “I don’t consider four drive-throughs within 500 feet of frontage to be a balance.”

Tenants should be at the discretion of property owners responding to market forces, Hearing responded.

Werner said residents bought homes in Westlake, at least in part, based on the sorts of business they were told would be coming to the community but have not appeared.

Werner added that he hears comments daily from residents who say they are “very disappointed and concerned about what’s happening with Westlake… [That] the community is becoming a drive-through and not a destiation… [with] little reason for people to visit and spend money here.”

John Carter, Minto’s senior vice president in charge of the Westlake project, said that the council’s refusal to allow the change to move forward immediately could have a chilling effect on other businesses he is attempting to bring to the community — especially two he currently is trying to secure for a major project. “This is going to make it exponentially more complicated as I engage with those developers,” Carter said. “It will put a wet blanket on the development community’s interest to come to this community and invest the magnitude of dollars that are in play when they don’t have the assurances, the confidence, the predictability that what is allowed by code can, in fact, be built.”

Although Westlake remains one of the fastest-growing municipalities in Florida, Mayor JohnPaul O’Connor said he shares Carter’s concerns.

“What I am terrified to do right now is have Westlake painted as a place that is not developer friendly,” he said. “I don’t think we can afford to do that during this massive growth phase.”

O’Connor added, “If we stall that, limit that now, word is going to get around quick that Westlake government is not easy to work with.”

In the end, Konover South withdrew two other fast-food-related change requests for Wellington Landings, asking that they all be considered together in April.

Meanwhile, Werner asked city staff to arrange a workshop meeting with Minto and other Westlake developers so that council members can get a better understanding of what is in the business pipeline.

“I think this is the first time we’ve had any [major] disagreement on the council,” Martinez said. “But it goes to show that we’re here to stand up for what we want. We have our own views, and that’s why we’re here.”

In other business:

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2023 Nationwide Auction of the Year Winner:

2023 Top Regional Auction Performers:

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Climb into a big green ATV and head out in any direction from Seminole Pratt Whitney Road, which bisects the 4,192-acre City of Westlake, and you’ll find yourself bumping and rocking over land cleared for houses, businesses and a big park. Land for development.

Often, the turned rock or sand is bone white and stretches out for hundreds of yards under this summer’s blowtorch of a sun, while fine granules carried on a hot wind peck at the lens of your sunglasses.

Some might call it a hellscape of mangled earth. But for Westlake City Manager Kenneth Cassel, it’s a dreamscape that no one envisioned when a small cadre of people in the nearly uninhabited Seminole Improvement District got together in 2016 to create the municipality, and Minto Communities USA moved in to develop most of the 4,554 homes approved by Palm Beach County.

The anticipated sales rate was 227 units per year. However, over the first seven years, sales have averaged 450 units per year. If that pace continues, Westlake could reach residential buildout in 2026 or early 2027.

“We looked at it and thought, rationally, we could hit buildout in 20, maybe 22 years,” said Cassel, who is employed by Inframark, the firm contracted to run the city. “But wow! It has been just incredible… We tell people, you better put your sneakers on, ’cause we’re moving fast.”

And not just in residential sales. Some 2.2 million square feet of commercial land is quickly being gobbled up on and near Seminole Pratt, with the recently opened Publix at Westlake Plaza shopping center being the community’s most notable new corporate resident.

Despite devastating hurricanes slamming Florida every couple of years, sky-high insurances rates, rising property taxes, the highest mortgage rates in a generation and home prices that are out of reach for many, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, Florida had the highest growth rate of any state in 2021-22. The last time that happened was 1957. Palm Beach County was listed among the top-five fastest growing in the state.

Cassel, a Miami native and U.S. Air Force veteran with a master’s degree in public administration from Florida International University, said this week he sees no sign of a slowdown in Westlake or Florida. He cited the natural progression of millions of the state’s young people coming of age and needing housing, plus migration from inside and outside the U.S., driven partly by Florida’s lack of an income tax.

“Last week, Minto released 10 or 15 lots in Westlake, and they sold in two hours,” Cassel said. “In comparison to a lot of places, [Florida] looks pretty darn good.”

Minto, Westlake’s primary developer and landowner, certainly is not slowing down.

The final nail and doorjamb recently went into place in the 424 homes of The Groves, just south of Persimmon Blvd.; 60 percent of the 599 homes in The Orchards, south of Town Center Parkway, are completed; and as soon as that project is done, crews will start shaping ground and laying foundations for 350 houses in The Pines.

That development, featuring a long, linear lake with surrounding multimodal golf cart, bike and fitness trails, will back up to Golden Grove Elementary School and Western Pines Middle School, providing easy access for students and parents.

“You talk to developers, and many will tell you that a lot of municipalities make getting from point A to point B almost impossible,” Cassel said. “The overarching vision from the beginning with the city’s comprehensive plan… was to make it so that development could take place smoothly.”

The key to all of it is sticking to the plan.

“We’ve set up parameters that give predictability for the developers,” he said. “As long as developers stay within those boxes, the process is pretty straightforward.”

Other major developers in Westlake include Kolter Homes, which created the 55-plus community of Cresswind, and Label & Co., developer of Sky Cove.

Since its inception, Westlake has tried to position itself as a relatively affordable alternative to exploding housing prices near the coast and in areas like Wellington. Westlake has so far held to that model, with only a handful of homes in The Estates valued at more than a $1 million. Keeping homes low enough on the six-figure scale to make them appealing to sought-after young families and mid-level professionals is a constant balancing act, Cassel said.

In planning construction, developers “watch the market very closely,” he said. “If homes with 65 feet of frontage aren’t selling, then maybe they do 55 feet in the next development. It’s all market driven… [But] we’re always asking ourselves, how do we fit into the sweet spot in the middle in terms of housing costs, taxes and utilities, while still providing a real quality of life.”

In the exploding South Florida real estate market, it’s not easy.

Through Minto’s “Welcome Heroes” program and the city’s Housing Assistance Purchase Program Yearly (HAPPY) trust fund, discounts or tax breaks are offered to help teachers, medical professionals, government workers, first responders, members of the military and veterans — especially first-time homebuyers. But the continued surge in salaries, home prices and the cost of mortgages has forced Westlake to leave some $2.5 million in homebuyer assistance sitting on the table.

Cassel said this week that he is working on ways to revamp the program to qualify more homebuyers.

Meanwhile, Westlake continues to build a web of partnerships with various developers, the Seminole Improvement District, Florida Power & Light and Palm Beach County, among others, that Cassel said will pay dividends for years to come.

The biggest current joint venture is a 50-acre park south of Seminole Ridge High School. Part of the land next to the M-2 Canal also is being used by Seminole for 2.5-million-gallon irrigation water retention tank that already is under construction next to an existing 500,000-gallon tank.

Plans for the park are not complete but likely will include a walking trail, restrooms, soccer fields, pickleball courts, a “tot-lot” playground, hook-ups for a portable concert stage and a number of food trucks, along with parking for 275 cars and 100 golf carts. Also under discussion are tennis, basketball and beach volleyball courts, and a concession stand.

Eventually, a community center/town hall with council chambers is expected to be part of the project, which will be phased in over three to five years.

“The vision for whatever we build there will be as a multipurpose facility, not something that only gets used once a month,” Cassel said. “We don’t want something that will be underutilized. We always want to be smart with the taxpayers’ money.”

The City of Westlake continued its phenomenal growth in 2023, allowing Westlake City Council members to hold the line on tax rates and to cast the vision for a 50-acre regional park on the west side of Seminole Pratt Whitney Road.

When Westlake came into being in 2016, “we looked at it and thought, rationally, we could hit buildout in 20, maybe 22 years,” City Manager Kenneth Cassel said in August, predicting residential buildout could come as soon as 2026. “It has been just incredible… We tell people, you better put your sneakers on, ’cause we’re moving fast.”

However, the Seminole Improvement District, which controls the community’s infrastructure, and Minto Communities USA, the city’s largest landowner and developer, did suffer a setback in October when a judge ruled against them in a lawsuit that would have given the community access to nearby Indian Trail Improvement District roads.

The loss means that for now, there is no real east-west access for motorists wishing to enter or leave Westlake. The only major traffic route is north-south via Seminole Pratt.

“Minto remains confident in the merits of our case and will continue to pursue all options available,” Minto Senior Vice President John Carter, who is in charge of the Westlake project, said at the time.

“Westlake has stayed pretty neutral in the fight over those connections,” Mayor JohnPaul O’Connor noted at a council meeting early in the year. “But we can’t have one way in and out of the city.”

The city considered joining the lawsuit but, in the end, stayed out.

Carter, who was raised in Riviera Beach and learned construction from the tile up working with his father, said he was unfazed by the judge’s decision. In a September feature story, Carter noted that he’s not required to live in the city he is creating, but he does with his wife and two children.

And what does that say about Westlake? “That I feel that good about this community that I would raise my kids here,” Carter said. “I believe in it that much personally and professionally.”

Here’s a recap of other major events in Westlake during 2023.

January

The council heard that Minto and the city were working with the Palm Beach County School District to create a backdoor from the builder’s planned Pines neighborhood to adjacent Western Pines Middle School and Golden Grove Elementary School, which are located on 140th Avenue North. The lack of an east-west connecting road forces parents to drive several miles outside the community to drop off and pick up their children.

Construction officially got underway on a new retail/restaurant complex on Jan. 31 when Minto officials joined with representatives of Konover South, MEC Construction and community leaders to break ground on the Shoppes of Westlake Landings, which is composed of two multi-tenant retail shopping centers and pod of quick service restaurants totaling 23,000 square feet.

February

The council approved a 22-page ordinance regulating sexually oriented businesses, since federal law does not allow an outright ban. Among other restrictions, the ordinance requires that such a business be at least 1,000 feet from existing churches or places of worship, educational institutions, public parks, and existing residential areas and properties zoned for residential use. Because of Westlake’s small geographic size, the ordinance would effectively limit such businesses to a narrow corridor on either side of Seminole Pratt Whitney Road near the community’s north end.

March

The city’s Art in Public Places requirement got off to an impressive start with the James Business Park’s unveiling of plans to display “Orange with Three Blossoms,” an original sculpture that will stand approximately 12 feet tall at the corner of Town Center Parkway and Persimmon Blvd. The business park is expected to be completed in 2024.

In his annual report to the council, Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office Capt. Craig Turner described Westlake as “extremely safe.” That is at least partly due to the large number of law enforcement personnel and other first-responders who live in the community, he said. With most criminals, “if they see a lot of law enforcement vehicles parked in driveways, they find another area,” he said.

On March 29, Minto unveiled the final phase of its $22 million resort-style Westlake Adventure Park, the centerpiece for social gatherings and activities for the master-planned community. City and county officials and other invited guests joined the Minto team for a ribbon-cutting ceremony and reception.

April

The council and the Seminole Improvement District’s board met in a joint workshop to begin shaping the vision for a planned 50-acre park off Seminole Pratt Whitney Road. The vision includes a walking trail, restrooms, at least six soccer fields, numerous pickleball courts, a covered tot-lot playground, hook-ups for a portable concert stage and a number of food trucks, along with 275 parking spaces for cars and 100 for golf carts. Possible additions to the plan include tennis, basketball and beach volleyball courts, concession stands, and a two-story, 7,000-square-foot community/government center.

May

Minto opened sales for the Woodlands of Westlake located on Town Center Parkway north of the existing Orchards neighborhood. The new neighborhood includes 164 homesites, many with water views.

June

The large and long-awaited Publix supermarket, which includes a pharmacy and liquor store, opened June 8 in the Westlake Plaza on Seminole Pratt. The 48,388-square-foot supermarket features an array of amenities. Cassel said the arrival of Publix is “a key part of the puzzle” in terms of Westlake becoming a true, self-sustaining community. “It’s a job generator. It’s a tax-base generator,” he said.

July

During an ATV tour of the city, Cassel said that the anticipated sales rate was 227 units per year when plans were being made for Westlake in 2016. However, over the first seven years, sales have averaged 450 units per year. Some 2.2 million square feet of commercial land also is quickly being gobbled up on and near Seminole Pratt, he said. “You talk to developers, and many will tell you that a lot of municipalities make getting from point A to point B almost impossible,” Cassel said. “The overarching vision from the beginning with the city’s comprehensive plan… was to make it so that development could take place smoothly.”

August

Jamyln Supply, a national e-commerce business specializing in pet and garden/outdoor supplies, broke ground on the first warehouse/distribution development in Westlake. The business will relocate its corporate headquarters and distribution activities from West Palm Beach to the nine-acre, 145,000-square-foot facility on Persimmon Blvd., creating approximately 40 new jobs. The project is expected to be completed in 2024.

September

The city adopted a property tax rate of 5.0 mills for the 2024 fiscal year to fund an $8,981,500 budget. The rate represented a small decrease from the city’s 2023 tax rate of 5.1 mills. The council also voted unanimously to prohibit medical marijuana treatment centers and dispensing centers within the City of Westlake.

October

Circuit Judge Richard Oftedal issued a partial judgment ruling that Minto and the Seminole Improvement District have no inherent right to access ITID’s roads, and if they wish to do so, they must seek a permit from ITID and pay “a reasonable fee.” If Minto fails to create an east-west connection for the development, it could owe the county as much as $18 million under a proportionate share agreement it entered into with the county when Westlake was approved, according to ITID’s suit.

Meanwhile, the council gathered for the first time Oct. 3 in their new meeting space at the Westlake Adventure Park Lodge on Town Center Parkway North. The council had met for years in a small, Minto-owned building off Seminole Pratt Whitney Road.

November

Councilwomen Charlotte Price Leonard and Pilar Elena Valle Ron, who were appointed over the last two years to fill vacant seats, had to declare their election intentions for 2024 prior to the Nov. 14 deadline. Leonard said she would stand for a full, four-year term, but on Nov. 8, Valle Ron resigned her seat, saying she was moving out of Westlake to pursue a career opportunity. No one filed to oppose Leonard for Seat 3, and only newcomer Gary Werner filed for Seat 1, meaning they’re in and there will be no need for a municipal election.

December

Though Werner’s official term does not begin until April, he was appointed to the vacant Seat 1 until then on 4-0 vote by the remaining council members.

The council also passed ordinances to define and restrict “arcade amusement centers and electronic gaming establishments” and “massage establishments.”

The council agreed to repeal and reconstitute the ordinance governing its Educational Advisory Board, which has not met since the spring. The ordinance spells out two-year term lengths, and the requirement that the board meet at least four times a year. Vice Mayor Greg Langowski, who has been the council’s liaison to the board, said that changes make the ordinance “more robust.”