Latest Blog Posts

The Four Corners Area Council held their biennial bus tour of the Four Corners region this past August 21st. The morning began at Island Grove Wine Company at Formosa Gardens with a light breakfast before attendees boarded the bus. The tour was attended by people with businesses or business interests anywhere within the Four Corners regions of Lake, Orange, Osceola, or Polk County.

Here are some updates from the Central Florida Expressway Authority and Lake, Orange, Osceola, and Polk planners and commissioners that pertain to the Four Corners area of their respective counties.

Central Florida Expressway Authority

The Central Florida Expressway Authority (CFX) is an independent agency of the state responsible for the maintenance and operations of 118 center-lined miles of regional limited-access toll roads connecting five counties in Central Florida. Emily Brown, Manager of Public Affairs, represented the Central Florida Expressway Authority.

• The Central Florida Expressway Authority (CFX) is an independent agency of the state responsible for the maintenance and operations of 118 center-lined miles of regional limited-access toll roads connecting five counties in Central Florida.
• Osceola Parkway and Poinciana Parkway were added to the ePass system last year. Later this fall, there will be a build/no-build vote on the Poinciana Parkway extension that will run parallel to the Osceola-Polk county lines up to County Road 532, with an intersection at 1792. CFX is working with Osceola County to discuss widening 532 all the way to Old Lake Wilson Road. They are also working with Polk County.
• Part of the Poinciana Parkway extension project includes widening 532 to four lanes to relieve congestion where it intersects with I-4, with the ultimate goal of connecting it to I-4 in the future.
• Beyond the Ultimate I-4 Project in this area will require cooperation among the counties, as well as the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) Districts 1 and 5, to get people to move through the Four Corners area efficiently and effectively. CFX is already working with them all.
• CFX has proposed to their board a limited-access direct connector between 429 and US-27A.

Osceola

In Osceola County, the West 192 Development Authority oversees programs and projects related to planning, coordinating, implementing, and managing the redevelopment and revitalization of 17 miles of US Highway 192, which is Osceola County’s primary tourism corridor, and which partly lies within the Four Corners. Osceola County was represented by West 192 Development Authority Director Christina Morris and District 1 Commissioner Peggy Choudhry.

‍

• K. Hovnanian Homes at Four Seasons, part of the Mystic Dunes DRI (Development of Regional Impact), is a 55+ active living community with plans for 600 single-family homes.
• Sinclair Apartments is a 320-acre unit near Orlando Tree Trek Adventure located at Old Lake Wilson Road & Sinclair. A large distribution center is also on the books for the area.
• Encore at Reunion has an expansion slated for mixed-use commercial and office.
• An Osceola County Fire Station is slated for the Reunion area. As part of this addition, the County has invested in two more fire trucks and new equipment for the area.
• Orlando Health is building a stand-alone ER on the Osceola side of Osceola-Polk Line Road/CR 532, close to I-4.
• The West 192 Development Authority is broken into 8 segments. The Four Corners area is segment 1.

Polk

Half of Polk County’s 700,000-strong population lives in this northeast part of the county, but the area has half of the lane miles of the rest of the county. John Bohde, Land Development Director, and District 4 County Commissioner Dr. Martha Santiago joined the tour as representatives from Polk County.

• Near Legacy Callawalk Apartments, a road called Heritage Pass has been added to connect with Osceola-Polk Line Road/CR 532. This road has been on the books since the 1990s. Heritage Pass is a county-maintained road that connects all the way from 532 to Ronald Reagan Parkway.
• On Osceola-Polk Line Road/CR 532 close to I-4, plans are in place for storage facilities and multi-family homes.
• Merrill Gardens at ChampionsGate sits just past I-4 on CR 532, and another multi-family project, The Preserve at ChampionsGate, is going in behind it. That project is already leasing.
• The Preserve at ChampionsGate is going in behind it. That project is already leasing.
• Further down 532/Osceola-Polk Line Road/ChampionsGate Blvd. is the Festival development of sold townhomes that will have four phases in total. Ultimately, the plan is to link 532 all the way to Dunson Road to the west. Dunson Road runs into Highway 27, so that will create a link between 532 and 27.
• Pine Tree Trail is a newer road that serves the Solterra Resort development.  Solterra used to be called Oakmont.  Oakmont’s single-phase and golf course were developed in the 1990s.  Now, its development is continuing as Solterra.
• Polk County also stepped in to extended Ernie Caldwell Blvd. to Pine Tree Trail.  Standard Sand is proposing 400 units on Pine Tree Trail near Ernie Caldwell as part of the Ridgewood Lakes development.  Polk County is also in the midst or running utilities down the expanded Ernie Caldwell Blvd.
• The developers of the Crystal Lagoon project in Pasco County want to create a similar development in this part of Polk County. The lagoon will be built first.
• At Posner a new transit stop has been added as well as some new retail locations.  The Polk County Board of County Commissioners is fully funding a transit route in this area in the next fiscal year.  Posner is a DRI that was once the Circus World DRI and later became Boardwalk and Baseball.  It has now transitioned to the Posner DRI.  There are two multi family projects in this area that are currently going through the permit process.
• The county plans a flyover of Grandview Parkway over I-4 into the area around Dunson Road so that I-4 and 27 can be avoided when traveling between Posner and the ChampionsGate area.
• The interchange at 27 and I-4 will be completely redone as part of the I-4 ultimate and beyond project.  This will include the addition of frontage roads on Highway 27.

Lake

Lake County is the smallest geographically and population-wise of the counties that make up the Four Corners.  It is comprised of 14 municipalities and is known for its natural Florida landscapes.  About 18,000 people live in the Lake County portion of the Four Corners, and if the region were to be compared with the other 14 municipalities in the county it would be the 5^th or 6^th largest and have the youngest median age.  District 1 Commissioner Timothy Sullivan and Elevate Lake Executive Director Brandon Matulka represented Lake County.

• As you cross the bridge on Highway 27 from Polk County into Lake, South Lake Hospital’s Joe H. & Loretta Scott Health Pavilion becomes visible. This emergency room was finished in summer 2018 after Summer Bay by Exploria donated the property to them.  Nearby land is zoned to be developed into medical office, commercial, and retail space.  A dialysis center, primary care facility, and 100,000 square feet medical building are on the books.
• Pine Crest Academy Charter School has opened at the location of a former grocery store and a second vacant property is now a CF Fitness.
• Just north of Sawgrass Bay Blvd. is a new facility called Jet Surf Orlando.  Jet Surf is a mixture between surfing, wakeboarding, and jet skiing.  They have an academy and host events.
• Cagan Crossings is now home to Orlando Cat Café.
• Sawgrass Bay Blvd. is home to the new Seranoa development and will eventually extend to Orange County and provide a connection to the Western Way exit onto the 429.  The development itself will come between 100 and 200 feet of the Orange County Line.
• The Seranoa development is 1000-acre development with 16,000 residential units, 800 multi-family units, 350,000 square feet of commercial and office development, and 175,000 square feet of civic use zoned for a future school or something similar.  The Palms at Seranoa will be a 55+ community.
• Seranoa is the southernmost point of the Wellness Way urban service area.  Wellness Way is an area of Lake County that is 15,500 acres between Highway 27 and the Lake-Orange County Line up to Clermont to the north.  Businesses in Wellness Way must be able to develop 1000 acres at a time and must address issues including water conservation, design standards, technology infrastructure, and green space during the early planning stages.  Wellness Way also caps the number of residential units at 16,000.  It is designed as a job-creation space by setting aside area for quality commercial development in the future. There are three connections planned to connect this area to other parts of Lake County and Central Florida.
• Cagan Crossings on US 27 includes Cagan Crossings Library.  There are current plans to complete the second floor with meeting space and classrooms.  It includes about 1500 apartments.
• The western side of US 27 in Lake County is primarily green swamp and will be conserved.
• Cagan Crossings is currently clearing a 150-unit 55+ active adult community.

Orange

Much of Orange County’s land along and around Highway 192 in the Four Corners region is either wetlands or undeveloped.  Orange County plans to develop the undeveloped portions within the next year.  Steven Thorpe with the planning division represented Orange County.

• Off Avalon Road, past Harzog Road, is the Horizon West area of Orange County.  It is not considered part of the Four Corners, but does impact the Four Corners.
• A new development between Harzog Road and the Western Way extension has roughly 10,000 units and 23,000 square feet of commercial space potentially coming soon, though it won’t be visible for a while.
  ‍

Following the tour, attendees gathered for lunch at Island Grove Wine Company at Formosa Gardens and were treated to an update on the Four Corners Area Council’s Four Corners, One Vision initiative by GAI consultant Tom Kohler.  For more information on Phase II of the Four Corners, One Vision project, click here.
‍

In addition to our speakers and county representatives, the 4CAC is indebted to Duke Energy for sponsoring the Bus Tour this year, as well as Bahama Bay Resort for sponsoring the lunch, Universal Engineering Sciences for sponsoring breakfast, and supporting sponsorship from Four Corners ER and CenterState Bank.  Continued support for this event is also appreciated from Pegasus Bus and Island Grove Wine Company at Formosa Gardens.

This past week The Kissimmee Is Me Ambassador Program held their classroom training at Embassy Suites –Orlando Lake Buena Vista South. The classroom facilitator, Dr. Edwin Torres from Rosen College of Hospitality Management, spoke on Cross Cultural Guest Interactions. The participants learned the differences in greetings for guests of different cultures, the role and meaning of colors for various cultures, language, signage, and non-verbal communications and types of food desired, room amenities and similar topics.  

The hands on experience was held at Board and Brush Creative Studio.  The group participated in a DIY workshop and created their own unique wood sign.  
‍

Kissimmee Is Me Ambassador Program is a free initiative, for local hospitality employees, that offers both classroom training and personal hands-on experiences. These classes, sponsored by Experience Kissimmee and the Kissimmee/Osceola County Chamber of Commerce, reminds us all that we are the face of Kissimmee or “Kissimmee Is Me” when it comes to serving our guests.

Through this effort we are creating a team of Kissimmee Is Me Ambassadors by educating front-line service providers and their leaders about:

*  Cross Cultural Guest Interactions

*  The History of Kissimmee

*  Raising the Bar on Customer Service

*  The Must Sees and Dos in Osceola County

On August 14, the Poinciana Area Council hosted one of their popular PAC Luncheons at Merrill Gardens at Solivita Marketplace.  The topic of the day was cybercrime.  First, James Froelich with the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office mentioned a few cyber scams the Sheriff’s Department has noticed recently.  These include false bill-collections, or other phone calls where a scammer tries to quickly gain money or compromising information from the contactee.  
‍

The main speaker was Rebecca Ledingham, Vice President for Cyber and Intelligence Solutions at Mastercard relating to customer cybersecurity awareness and protection.  Prior to joining Mastercard, Rebecca was an agent with INTERPOL Global Complex for Innovation, where she was responsible for international collaboration and coordination around cyber investigations and all interactions and partnerships with international law enforcement, private sector organizations, and academic institutions.  In other words, she knows her stuff.

Rebecca’s number one word of advice was that we are all our own weakest links when it comes to cyber security.  Cybercrime is the product of human error – of the things we either do or don’t do. Here is just a brief summary of ways businesses and individuals can protect and combat against cybercrime.
‍

In Business

The four main methodologies by which you or your business may be hacked or compromised are:

1. Remote Desktop Protocol:  This is software that is used to link separate businesses remotely. A username and password are used to log in. For this type of software to be truly safe, two-factor authentication is needed. This means a third, dynamic element is needed in addition to the username and password to be secure.

• Phishing & Spam:  Phishing and spam are two different things. Spam is not personal; phishing is. Cyber criminals can buy “suckers lists” of stolen email addresses from the dark web and target specific institutions whose information appears on those lists. This is spam, which makes up the majority of emails you receive daily. Notable spam email includes scams targeting seniors and the infamous “Nigerian prince” emails. Phishing, on the other hand, is personal to the recipient. Phishers have done their research about their recipient and target them directly. They may target an individual based on their industry or job description and perceived ability to leverage them for money. They may monitor a target’s social media accounts to know when they are away and their company may be vulnerable. This is called business email compromise and it is currently the number one cybercrime in the USA.

• Passwords:  Writing your passwords down in pen and ink is safer than saving them somewhere online, which is where cyber criminals will be looking for them. It is a myth that changing your password regularly will help keep them secure. In business, do not share passwords on an admin system.

• Patching: BBasically, always keep your software up to date. All businesses use software to run their computers. This includes the Microsoft Office suite, and whatever industry-specific programs or software a business might run. Cyber criminals can scan the internet for companies that are still running software with vulnerabilities that have been identified by Microsoft and Apple, so it is important to keep all software up-to-date as software providers identify issues and create fixes.

PCI DSS Rules

Years ago, Visa, American Express, and MasterCard got together and created a set of rules for merchants who want to accept their cards as tender. These are called the PCI DSS Rules and they are some of the few global rules for cyber security. They are the basic minimum standard that businesses, merchants, and banks must adhere to. No business that is breached is compliant with these rules at the time of the breach. It is critical that businesses, merchants, and banks adhere to these rules. They are as follows:

1. Install and Maintain a Firewall
2. Do Not Use Vendor-Supplied Defaults
3. Protect Stored Cardholder Data
4. Encrypt Transmission of Cardholder Information
5. Use and Update Anti-Virus Software
6. Develop and Maintain Secure Systems and Applications
7. Restrict Access to Cardholder Data
8. Assign Unique IDs to All Users
9. Restrict Physical Access to Cardholder Data
10. Track and Monitor All Access to Cardholder Data
11. Test Security Systems and Processes
12. Write and Enforce a Security Policy

Some Basic Tips

• Use Apple Pay, Google Pay, or Android Pay when possible.  That is the safest way to pay.
• The safest credit card has both a chip and pin.
• Don’t click on advertising on websites.  They may not be legitimate ads. This is called “malvertising.”   Go to the original site if you wish to view the advertised product. 
• Don’t buy pre-paid gift cards if the silver foil is not intact.
• Switch your name and date of birth around on Ancestry DNA.
• Never pay ransom for stolen data.  You’re just supporting further crime.
• Don’t “cross-contaminate” your email.  Have separate email accounts for banking, shopping, friends & family, etc.
• Don’t access your personal accounts, including email, on free public wi-fi.

Fun, Interesting, or Downright Frightening Facts

• For every 12.5 million spam emails that a spammer sends out, they need only one reply to make $7,000 in a day.
• The Dark Web was originally created by the Pentagon in 1969 to facilitate dissidents in Iran and Iraq who were unable to communicate with the outside world.
• The Dark Web is not accessible by Google; it has its own browser.
• In Russia, it is only illegal to hack Russian companies. There are no repercussions for hacking American sites.
• Children are 35 times more likely to have their identity compromised than an adult.
• 15% of money made by cyber criminals goes toward diapers, food, and groceries.
• 20% goes toward prostitutes and drugs.
• 30% goes toward further crime, including human trafficking, drug trafficking, and continued cybercrime.
• You are more likely to be targeted if you have a Facebook account.
• 62% of gas stations in Florida are estimated to have skimming devices on them at any given time, according to the Secret Service.

The Poinciana Area Council would love to thank Merrill Gardens at Solivita Marketplace for their hospitality and support, and the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office for their participation.  To find out what PAC is planning next, follow them on Facebook.