I recently got back to California from spending some time in Boca Raton, Florida, where I noticed that almost all of the recent developments down there have their own little lakes or even multiple little lakes. Looking at the shore near these lakes, I saw that they had definitely been graded and a lot of landscaping had been done to rearrange the terrain.
My question is: how much are these lakes artificial and how much are they natural? Do the developers mostly follow the topography that already exists (I’m sure that before it was developed, Florida had lots of lakes and depressions) or do they recreate the topography of the area from scratch they way they want to make it?
I am not sure what the ratio of natural to artificial lakes is.
As far as your other question: all of the above. Sometimes smaller lakes are made larger, and other times lakes are created from scratch. These lakes are almost necessary for the drainage of the area. Florida was originally all swamp. If you want dry land, you have to redirect the water somewhere else. A big hole in the shape of a lake is an obvious and simple solution. It also looks nice, and the ducks like it too.
The majority of lakes are real, although they may have been sculpted in some cases to remove shoreline vegetation, and permit a few more lakefront lots. Lakefront real estate in Florida really isn’t that expensive, unless you’re in a community that is already prestigous – I’ve been told to avoid them, because dogs and alligators don’t really mix.
All of FL seems to be manicured. The Keys are full of canals. Cape Coral was sold as everything is waterfront. They got canals left and right. Some don’t even drain out to the sea. People throw garbage in them…Well you get the idea.
Most of the canals and development lakes in South Florida (Palm Beach, Broward, and Dade Counties) are not real. They are manmade.
The canals date from the early 20th Century, when they were used for irrigating the Atlantic coast from the Everglades Swamp. The lakes are much more recent, as suburban developments have exploded in the last 20 years.
Just about the only natural bodies of water in SoFla are the Intracoastal and that big ocean to the east.
I agree with Montfort that most of the lakes aren’t “real”, in that they’re not real “lakes”. But in many cases the water on the developed property was there already, just more widely dispersed. Southern Florida consists of not just swamps, but wetlands, grasslands,etc and the water table is very close to the surface. A big part of the rearranging that goes on with developing is called “dredge and fill”. Artificial canals and retention ponds are dug deeper to collect runoff, and drain wet areas, into focused bodies of water, and the sites for the homes-to-be are filled and built with dirt and rock from elsewhere. In addition, a lot of Florida Counties have an unfortunate demand on developers for “enviromental mitigation”. The demand isn’t unfortunate in it’s basic idea: if you develop one natural area, you must mitigate the development with creation/conservation of other natural areas. It’s unfortunate because broad interpretations of the law allow for developers to throw in a couple of these “lakes”, often with sterile, abiotic, or underevolved aquatic communities, as a way to meet the requirement. Or, even worse, they can “mitigate” on another piece of developed property miles away in “exchange”, effectively wiping out all kinds of wildlife and posting some imaginary sign (in someone’s poor estimation of what happens in the natural world) that says “Hey all you foxes, gopher tortoises, sandhill cranes…(etc), there’s another piece of real nature you can move to down the block. After you dodge traffic.”
In fairness to the developers, the canals and retention ponds have to be there to offset Florida’s heavy seasonal rains, which otherwise would turn the developments back into wetlands. But because it’s more cost-effective to dredge out simple shapes (square “lakes”), and not restock them with successions of naturally occuring wetland plants and animals, the “lakes” you see are purely cosmetic, and part of a sad trade-off of “water views” for what was once biotic richness. The new lakes not only won’t ever support the same level of ecological diversity as before, they won’t be able to perform the environmental functions of water filtration before it percolates into the water table, or hatcheries nursing of fish and other species. So calling them lakes is a little too kind.
I used to live in Boca Raton, Florida. Nearly all of those little ponds are completely manmade. And where they appear it’s a reason not to buy.
Here’s the deal: Florida is flat. The highest land elevation in the state, near Orlando, is less than 400 feet above sea level. Closer to the shore you have low lying land–so low that, unless my information is now out of date, only one house in the entire city of Boca Raton has a basement.
Flooding is a serious danger.
My family checked the local geological maps and bought a house in the only part of town that was above water during the hurricane of 1948.
Those canals and ponds exist because the land is too low to support a building foundation. So the developers dig a ditch of some sort, pile up enough dirt to support a building in good weather, and leave with the profits before the next big storm hits. That’s why there’s so much fancy landscaping work down there. Caveat emptor.
Shouldn’t the city and county planning departments prevent development on some of these lowlands? Yes. Do they? Um…the whole country got a taste of Florida politics recently.
BTW Beware of advertisements that say, “at Boca Raton.” Those are in unincorporated county land that the city reserved decades ago but never actually annexed. This includes nearly everything west of I-95, including the Towne Center mall (whose name is a big joke with the real locals). “In Boca Raton” is reserved for real estate that’s actually in the city. Yes, it makes a difference. Among other things you’d be stuck with county police, fire, and ambulance service.
The majority of lakes in the Orlando area are real. They have been groomed, altered, and supposedly in the case of Disney, pumped full of water so there’s no evidence of the current drought.
I’m a planner for a small town near Orlando. Whenever I review any subdivision plans or building permits, drainage is pretty much the number one concern. There’s no storm sewer system, so it’s important that all of the water from those summer showers ends up somewhere, preferably not in someone’s front yard. There are swales between every new building lot, directing stormwater towards artificial retention ponds, but they’re really not “lakes.”
The strange thing is that stormwater isn’t directed towards the real lakes in the town – most is directed to the ponds. Why? St. Augustine grass. The most prevalent form of grass in Central Florida requires a lot of fertilizer and chemicals to keep green, chemicals that we don’t want draining into the lakes. Homes that front the lakes have “perk berms” so stormwater doesn’t flow right into a lake, but rather into a swale that runs along a lake, where it will percolate into the ground.
As for the lowlands – in my town, they’re being turned into a nature preserve.
Whenever I fly in to Miami, I see large square “lakes” to the west of town that are clearly actively being scooped out by excavation equipment. What is the main purpose of these excavations? Are they being dug out to use the limestone (or whatever) for construction material? It appears that at least some of these quarries are eventually converted into “lakeside” developments. What’s going on?
From the Florida Highway Patrol site: Highest Point:
The State Bureau of Geology says the highest known surveyed elevation in Florida is located in the northeastern part of Walton County. That elevation has been fixed at 345 feet and is just south of the community of Lakewood. Walton County is in the panhandle, between Tallahassee and Pensacola, south of Alabama - not near Orlando.
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Because local governments found it so hard to resist developer money, back in the 1980’s the state enacted growth management laws. Large developments (Developments of Regional Impact) had to meet a whole list of requirements, and the state gov’t. had the responsibility to give the final yes/no. Now, under a Republican legislature, and Jeb-boy as Guv., we are about to return to local control of development decisions. Good-bye remaining pockets of undeveloped Florida, it was nice knowin’ ya.
Thanks for straightening me out on that one. I had thought the highest ground was in the panhandle too, but someone whose parents moved to the Orlando area assured me it was there. Repeatedly. Guess I listened to the wrong person.
Either way, the high ground is nowhere near Boca Raton.
Yeah, I’ve seen the construction crews scooping out ponds myself–up close–in parts of Boca Raton that never had ponds before. I don’t know that I ever came across any natural ponds in that town other than the wetlands near the ocean and bordering the Everglades.
Wasn’t aware of that state law you mentioned. From what I saw and what I heard through the family grapevine about local politics, it looked like communities were still going up in places where humans were never intended to live.