Update: 08/11/2026

We continue to monitor our Shirley Shores area for potential development plans to keep you informed. On June 1st, the De Pasquale Horse Ranch on Shirley Shores Boulevard sold for $12,900,000.

The sale price was $2,900,000 OVER the ASKING price of $10M on the Multiple Listing Service. Here are some facts:

1. The property was formerly known as “The Allen Horse Farm” and it was purchased by the De Pasquale family in June of 2020 for $2,440,000. We did not see improvements made to the property during their ownership.

2. The new owner is listed as “Tavares Development Land Trust” and it has the same address as “Elevation Development” who made an application for development of the ranch in October of 2025 with the City of Tavares. The city's review of that plan showed numerous concerns and was not complete enough to be submitted to the Planning and Zoning Board for Review.

3. The plan submitted was for mostly small lots of 100’ x 120’

4. The city confirmed that they have yet to receive a revised development plan.

Someone filed a complaint about our Neighbors for Responsible Development signs with the Lake County Code Enforcement group. Our signs were slightly larger than the code allows and we were given a grace period to take them down. The signs did not generate donations as we had hoped, so we are unsure if we will replace them.

The St. Johns Water Authority has been given a 69-acre parcel on Lake Beauclaire Dr and Deer Island Rd called Bar Key. The good news is that the parcel will be held in perpetuity and not developed into housing, The bad news is the Water Authority decided that the area should be "restored" to “marsh wetlands". It is currently categorized as a "forested wetlands". So, they are in the process of cutting down all the vegetation on the entire site and then doing a control burn of the logs. The Lake County Board of County Commissioners recently passed a motion that site development needs to leave a 25' landscaped barrier from the street for all projects. We are not sure if we can get The Water Authority to NOT cut down the old grown large trees on Beauclaire Road or not. Work to do.

We plan on holding meetings at the 448 Club headquarters in the near future to inform our neighbors of the ongoing work we are doing, and the threats to our community. We will send out email notification with a date soon. Please join the contact list, if you have not already to stay tuned to the latest update.