Destiny, Florida was a large-scale urban development project in Osceola County near

Yeehaw Junction Yeehaw Junction is a census-designated place (CDP) in central Florida in Osceola County, Florida, United States. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 240. The area was confused with Buenaventura Lakes CDP in the 2000 census, and the cor ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

. The project was a joint partnership between the Pugliese Development Co. of

Delray Beach Delray Beach is a city in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. The population of Delray Beach as of April 1, 2020 was 66,846 according to the 2020 United States Census. Located 52 miles (83 kilometers) north of Miami, Delray Beach is in the ...

and FD Destiny LLC, owned by

Fred DeLuca Frederick Adrian DeLuca (October 3, 1947 – September 14, 2015) was an American businessman, who was the co-founder and president of the Subway franchise of fast food restaurants with Peter Buck. During his tenure, Subway grew into the largest f ...

. It was one of 16 initial projects of “climate positive" real estate developments supported by the

Clinton Climate Initiative The Clinton Foundation (founded in 2001 as the William J. Clinton Presidential Foundation, and renamed in 2013 as the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation) is a nonprofit organization under section 501(c)(3) of the U.S. tax code. It was e ...

. The project faced delays due to lawsuits and opposition from Florida state agenciesMarvin G. Gortner
"Destiny facing huge hurdles "
County News , ''Around Osceola'', 9 April 2010 and fell apart. The main portion of the land previously intended for the project has since been donated for conservation.

Proposed development

The project planned for the eventual development of a property to include 88,000 to 100,000 residential units for a population of 200,000 to 250,000 residents. Initial plans, scheduled to begin in 2011, called for up to 10,000 residential units and of business use. The proposed infrastructure was based on a large-scale "climate positive" community entirely supported through sustainable energy. Sources of energy would have included a 30MW solar array, a waste management system for extracting methane, and an energy farm for the production of biofuel.

Controversy

In 2009 Osceola County proposed an amendment in its comprehensive building plan for a "new city overlay on more than 500,000 acres in a rural area in the county", which would allow for the construction of the Destiny development as well as several other large-scale projects. The Florida Department of Community Affairs opposed the amendment, citing the Florida’s Growth Management Act and stating the amendment would contribute to

urban sprawl Urban sprawl (also known as suburban sprawl or urban encroachment) is defined as "the spreading of urban developments (such as houses and shopping centers) on undeveloped land near a city." Urban sprawl has been described as the unrestricted growt ...

. There was additional opposition to the development from the

Avon Park Air Force Range Avon may refer to: *River Avon (disambiguation), several rivers Organisations * Avon Buses, a bus operating company in Wirral, England * Avon Coachworks, a car body builder established in 1919 at Warwick, England, relaunched in 1922, followin ...

which had been requested by the developers to change its

flight ceiling With respect to aircraft performance, a ceiling is the maximum density altitude an aircraft can reach under a set of conditions, as determined by its flight envelope. Service ceiling Service ceiling is where the rate of climb drops below a pres ...

from to . The Air Force said this would interfere with flight training. In September 2009, Fred DeLuca filed suit against Anthony Pugliese of the Pugliese Development Company claiming mismanagement of the Destiny project and misuse of project funding for personal use. On September 29, 2009, Anthony Pugliese and Fred DeLuca entered into an Agreed Order whereby Pugliese agreed to "temporarily relinquish control" of the project. In December 2009, Pugliese filed a five billion dollar lawsuit against DeLuca for fraudulent financial practices associated with creating loans for the Destiny project. In April 2010, Osceola County postponed further development of the comprehensive plan due to the state opposition and the court litigation. In June 2016, a judge ordered Pugliese pay $13 million to DeLuca's estate. Further court rulings raised that sum to over $20 million by 2018.

DeLuca Preserve

In late 2020, a section of land formerly intended for the project was donated by Fred DeLuca's widow Elisabeth to the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...

under the provision that it indefinitely be preserved in its undeveloped state. Under the conditions of the donation,

Ducks Unlimited Ducks Unlimited (DU) is an American nonprofit organization 501(c) dedicated to the conservation of wetlands and associated upland habitats for waterfowl, other wildlife, and people. It has had a membership of around 700,000 since January 2013. ...

has been given the responsibility to enforce the

conservation easement In the United States, a conservation easement (also called conservation covenant, conservation restriction or conservation servitude) is a power invested in a qualified private land conservation organization (often called a "land trust") or gover ...

on the land, which is now called the DeLuca Preserve. The university is able to use the land for teaching and research purposes, íncluding some amount of experimental citriculture.

References

External links

* https://web.archive.org/web/20110202125817/http://destinyfl.com/ * http://puglieseco.com/ {{authority control Proposed populated places in the United States Planned communities in the United States Unincorporated communities in Osceola County, Florida Planned communities in Florida Unincorporated communities in Florida