Avon Park Lakes (APL) is a residential community of about 2,500 people in northwest

Highlands County, Florida Highlands County is a County (United States), county located in the Florida Heartland region of the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 101,235. Its county seat is Sebring, Florida, Sebring ...

. It is bounded by

Polk County, Florida Polk County is located in the central portion of the U.S. state of Florida. The county population was 725,046, as of the 2020 census. Its county seat is Bartow, and its largest city is Lakeland. Polk County comprises the Lakeland–Winter Ha ...

, on the north and

Hardee County, Florida Hardee County is a county located in the Florida Heartland, Central Florida region U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2020 census, the population was 25,327. Its county seat is Wauchula. Hardee County comprises the Wauchula, FL Micropolitan St ...

, on the west. On the northeast it is bounded by

Lake Adelaide Lake Adelaide is a lake located in the northwest corner of Highlands County, Florida. It is bounded on the north by Holiday Ranch RV Park, which borders the Polk-Highlands County line, on the east by Adelaide Shores RV Resort and on the west by ...

. The development, roughly "C" shaped, reaches to the south a block north of State Road 64 and nearly to the northeast of

U.S. Route 27 U.S. Route 27 (US 27) is a north–south United States Highway in the southern and midwestern United States. The southern terminus is at US 1 in Miami, Florida. The northern terminus is at Interstate 69 (I-69) in Fort Wayne, Indiana. F ...

. It is bordered along the middle of the "C" by the city limits of Avon Park, Florida. Avon Park Lakes is unincorporated, but has a homeowners association, the Avon Park Lakes Association. The development almost surrounds

Lake Olivia Lake Olivia is an freshwater lake located within the Avon Park Lakes subdivision in northwest Highlands County, Florida. It is to the northwest of the incorporated city of Avon Park. Maximum depth is about , with a fairly steep contour to the ...

, which is a lake and park, and it surrounds Lake Chilton. Lake Olivia is completely outside the development, while Lake Chilton is included in it. There is a clubhouse on the south side of Lake Olivia, owned by the Avon Park Lakes Association (the development's homeowner association). No commercial developments are in the boundaries of APL. One church, World Harvest & Restoration Ministries, is inside APL. Another, Iglesia Cristo te Ama, has part of its property inside APL, although the church building is just outside the development. Avon Park Lakes Baptist Church is just outside the extreme eastern edge of the development. This Baptist church got its beginnings inside APL, meeting at the clubhouse before moving to its current location. In 2014 Bread for Life Ministries began meeting Sundays in the clubhouse; this church plans to build at a location south of downtown Avon Park. Other churches associated with APL have come and gone. The subdivision began in 1956 and grew for almost a decade. It began growing at a quick rate in 1973 and only stopped growing a few years after the real estate crash of 2007-8. Then, probably for the first time in its history, came a slight migration away from the area.Pollard, pp. 53-5.

References

{{coord, 27, 37, 42, N, 81, 32, 54, W, type:city_region:US-FL_source:GNIS-enwiki, display=title Geography of Highlands County, Florida 1956 establishments in Florida Populated places established in 1956