Auburndale, Polk County
- 2023 population: 19,298
- Population growth (2022-23): 3.9%
- Average home price: $315,323
- Median rent: $1,810
- Average salary: $34,022
- Median household income: $67,661
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, University of Florida Bureau of Economic and Business Research, ZipRecruiter, Zillow
Not long ago, Auburndale was a citrus and agriculture town, with orange groves dominating the landscape and giving the small Central Florida city its identity. Then citrus greening disease hit hard, and the groves were uprooted, seemingly overnight.
It changed the community, says City Manager Jeff Tillman, who grew up in Auburndale, graduated from its only high school and somehow fell in love with the idea that city management was an ideal career choice starting when he mowed lawns in city parks as a teen.
Census data released in the spring identified Polk County, where Auburndale sits just east of Lakeland, as the nation’s fastest-growing county. Auburndale represents an example of that growth — it was home to 15,500 people when Tillman, 39, became city manager just three years ago. It has more than 19,200 residents today.
“You can’t upgrade your sewer system or your water systems fast enough for the growth,” he says. “So there’s a lot of planning just to stay ahead of that.”
On the plus side, new residents bring new tax revenue, giving Tillman confidence that he can increase services to meet the additional needs without threatening Auburndale’s status as Polk County’s lowest-tax city. But figuring out how to absorb all those new residents while protecting Auburndale’s small-town lifestyle remains a challenge. He’s proud of the fact that the family-owned Shake Shoppe his parents used to go to when they were growing up is still in business just off Auburndale Park and wants his young sons to know the same lifestyle.
But new residents keep coming. Hundreds of acres of those empty orange groves will be replaced by neighborhoods, inspired by the design of Celebration, a planned community built by Disney. That means New Urbanism designs with back-alley access to garages will help keep the streets clear. Parks and conservation space along Auburndale’s many scenic lakes are a priority.
Commercial centers will be close by to reduce traffic and there will be no drive-throughs. “The restaurants are all walk-in,” Tillman says. “We’re just trying to keep that small town feel with big town growth.”
Worsening traffic is the challenge nearly all the state’s growth communities face, says Florida League of Cities legislative affairs chief Casey Cook.
“There’s upside to growth in that it provides the resources to continue to provide the services that residents expect,” Cook says. “But the downside is that communities are forced to change and it takes longer to get from Point A to Point B. And some folks wish that Eden would stay the same.”
Often there are few good answers. Small towns weren’t designed to hold major thoroughfares and often are locked in by existing buildings. That’s true in Auburndale, Tillman says, pointing to Lake Ariana Boulevard. The two-lane road that intersects Interstate 4 and winds south into downtown is lined by lakes that are off-limits to road widening or by houses on opposite sides. “You’d never be able to four-lane that,” Tillman says.
Instead, Auburndale is looking at traffic calming measures like roundabouts. But because most roadways are controlled by the county or the state, the city must compete for projects and funding against the area’s other fast-growing cities.
Staffing is another key issue for fast-growing cities, both in finding people to fill jobs in law enforcement and municipal positions like plans reviewers and building inspectors to help manage new construction, and in finding housing these workers can afford.
“When you add 1,000 people a day to Florida, cities are having to provide service to more people every day," Cook says. “Finding qualified people to fill some of these jobs is a challenge.”