Civil Municipal View Feb2023

45 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 4, ISSUE 2 new restaurants and retailers. Auburndale recently annexed 860 acres of property in anticipation of the need for more land that would need to be developed to meet commercial and residential demand. That land is adjacent to busy highways I-4 (Polk Parkway), the main thoroughfare through the city. It is just one example of ongoing development being in high demand. In recent years there has been a documented interest in expanding the city’s economic development fingerprint. Much of the interest has come from industrial businesses that have invested in their properties within Auburndale city limits. The high number of large industrial employers include Coca-Cola, which houses its largest beverage manufacturing facility in the world. Another large employer is Medline, a healthcare manufacturer, distributor, and solutions provider, which values its Auburndale location because of its proximity to large cities like Tampa and Sarasota. Logistics provider Saddle Creek houses a large third-party logistics center as well. Those three companies alone employ several hundred employees in the community. Polk County and the cities of Lakeland and Auburndale signed a memorandum of understanding back in 2019 to work together with the Central Florida Development Council to develop a vision for the Central Florida Innovation District. Under the MOU, the cities and county collaborate with landowners and stakeholders to diversify its economy, building upon the cutting-edge technology being developed and tested at Florida Polytechnic University and SunTrax, the Florida Turnpike Enterprise’s new 475-acre testing facility along the Polk Parkway. We have great working relationships with businesses because we try to make connections and bring leads and opportunity partnerships to them,” says Julie Womble, Director of Community Development for Auburndale. Housing development is growing beyond the Lakes AUBURNDALE , FLOR IDA