Lake Juliana, Auburndale: The County Park Permit Polk's Own Planners Turned Down

On June 6, 2012, the Polk County Planning Commission voted 5-1 to deny a zoning permit — not to a developer, but to Polk County. The county's Parks and Natural Resources Division wanted to put a public boat ramp on Lake Juliana, the 926-acre lake north of Auburndale along State Road 559. Bob Wiedrich, the division's senior planner, told The Ledger he had taken part in these hearings for 12 years and that no request for a zoning permit or a growth map change to build or expand a county park had ever been rejected before.

The site was 1.8 acres off SR 559, left over from the right-of-way the Florida Department of Transportation bought when it realigned the road in 1999, and later handed to Polk County for the express purpose of using the land for a park. County parks staff started looking at whether a ramp would work there in 2010. Juliana was one of the top priorities for development of a boat ramp by the county's Lakes Access Advisory Committee, a 10-member panel the County Commission appointed in 2008.

At the June hearing a procession of area property owners described the proposal as a public nuisance, a safety hazard and an unnecessary expenditure of public funds. Jeffrey Thompson, a lakefront owner, said the ramp was unnecessary because two private ramps already served the lake. Some of the early opponents considered Juliana a private lake, and they questioned whether Polk County owned any of the property in it.

Mike Callender, the county's parks and recreation manager, told the planning commissioners the private ramps were no substitute, because private access does not last: ramps had closed on Lake Lowery and Lake Hatchineha, and the county had lost leases on Lake Arietta and other lakes.

Ron Scheflo, owner of Ron's Tackle Shop in Lake Alfred and a member of the lakes committee, had collected a 504-signature petition in favor of the ramp and filed it with county planning officials. He missed the June meeting over a mixup on the date. Supporters did not show up.

The appeal went to the County Commission on July 24, 2012, and the parks department could not use the county's own lawyers to make it — Polk's legal staff represents the commission, which created a conflict of interest. Parks officials hired Lake Wales land-use attorney Jack Brandon for $4,000 instead. Opponents came back too. Thompson claimed the county was building its ramp on private land, and John Lange, who manages a private ramp on the north end of Juliana, objected that the county facility was "unfair competition to our business." Brandon and Sam Thomas, the county surveyor, testified that the stretch of lake bottom opponents claimed as private had been conveyed without proper legal authority, and that the bottom of Lake Juliana is state-owned. They submitted letters from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, which holds jurisdiction over submerged lands, supporting that reading. Supporters arrived this time with a petition carrying more than 500 signatures, and the commission voted unanimously to overturn the denial.

Construction started that fall and then waited on the delivery of a drainage structure. The Ledger reported on April 29, 2013 that the ramp had opened over the weekend. It cost about $200,000, drawn from a state fund built out of boat registration fees, and it opens daily from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. The same report noted that the new ramp would also reach Lake Mattie, which no longer has public access, through a nearby canal when water conditions allow.

Polk County's directory of public-access lakes, with the Juliana ramp checked in April 2014, listed it as a newly constructed county ramp and rated it excellent paved. In April 2021 the county shut ramp access from April 20 to April 23 to install a new dock, and the county's park page for the site now lists a boat ramp, public parking and an aluminum dock at 500 James Place.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission's statewide boat ramp inventory carries the site as the Lake Juliana Public Boat Ramp, a one-lane concrete ramp with 13 trailer spaces. Its access type, in the inventory's own field, is "Government Owned for General Public Use."