A colony unlike anything the Spanish explorers of the 1690s could have fathomed may be about to take root on Perdido Key, Florida's westernmost barrier island, as WCI Communities makes its first venture into northwest Florida.

Early Spanish visitors left nothing but the name -- meaning "lost'' -- while WCI's Lost Key Golf & Beach Club will establish a more significant presence. The 412-acre resort, with a 10-year blueprint for 1,900 mostly condominium residential units, is the largest development ever planned in Escambia County. County Administrator George Touart predicts Lost Key "will be the jewel of the key.''

Its potential $1-billion sellout could nearly double county property tax revenue from the island, estimated this year at $16.3 million, says Perdido Key Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Bill Stromquist.

The project's first 45 units sold out in one hour, a WCI record, says WCI division President Wanda Cross. Construction on the first 135 units, three mid-rise condominium towers, started in November.

Also planned: Tivoli Town Center, a country club, beach club, tennis courts, interactive library cafe, outdoor pools and fitness center. Prices average $600,000, with beachside units $1 million-plus.

Already in play is an Arnold Palmer-designed golf course, meandering through sand dunes and wetlands, the 1996 product of previous owners' development attempts. Those efforts ended in bankruptcy, after a building moratorium was imposed pending establishment of development limits.

Growth on the white-sands Perdido Key, west of Pensacola, long has been a contentious issue. Many modern-day early settlers opposed tourism-style development. Even rights of a native and rare beach mouse, protected by federal regulators, sometimes crimped construction.

Also complicating initiatives are the key's two conflicting development ceilings: A zoning limit of 9,000-plus units and a lower cap of 8,150, a compromise with state regulators that currently rules. The county would like to see the higher limit apply but first needs to improve traffic infrastructure. State Road 292, the primary access road to the island, is two lanes.

For now, Bonita Springs-based WCI has agreed to move ahead with only 1,023 of the 1,900 units the county approved as part of its master plan. The assumption, says Touart, is that once the road and the bridge from the mainland are widened, WCI can build additional units.

Newcomers, meanwhile, still will need to accommodate current residents, specifically the beach mouse. At Lost Key, says Cross, "Cats have to be on a leash.''