A Century-Old Village Looks to Modernize Its 1927 Charter
Highland Park has been called Florida’s second smallest municipality, a place where, as longtime resident and former mayor Blair Updike put it, “it’s one road, it’s a big circle, and you see everyone, and you wave.” It’s nestled between Lake Wales and Frostproof. It’s one of those places if you blink, you might miss it. That doesn’t mean it has a small history. Nearly a century after its incorporation, the village is now taking a hard look at the legal document that holds it all together.
Highland Park’s roots trace to 1919, when developer B.K. Bullard bought 3,000 acres south of Lake Wales and hired promoter Irwin A. Yarnell to market the community to Quaker industrialists from the North. Many early residents lived seasonally in a dormitory building separated into male and female wings, a structure that still stands today as part of what later became the Lekarica Golf and Country Club Resort.
Yarnell built a 25-room mansion on a hilltop in 1923, now known as Casa de Josefina, which Updike described as a love gift to his wife. When the Florida land boom went bust later that decade, residents stopped paying dues to maintain the community’s shared spaces. Incorporation in 1927 gave the village a tax base to keep the lights on, a solution that, in modified form, still funds basic operations nearly 100 years later, according to WTSP, Tampa Bay’s local news source.
Today, fewer than 350 residents call Highland Park home, and they remain responsible for their own roads, landscaping, water tower and water supply, with fiscal responsibility a top priority for current commissioners.
That same charter from 1927, written for a small seasonal resort community in a very different Florida, is now the subject of fresh scrutiny from the village’s elected leadership.
During a March regular meeting, the Highland Park Commission opened discussion on a comprehensive charter review, introduced largely for the benefit of newly seated Commissioner Steve Railey. The conversation centers on language and structure that have not been revisited in decades, even as the village’s governance needs have shifted.
One driver behind the review is a possible state requirement to align municipal elections with either odd- or even-numbered years statewide, a change that could force Highland Park to adjust commissioner terms from three years to four. Village Attorney Andrew Hand confirmed that a full charter replacement would require approval from village voters through a public referendum, not simply a commission vote.
Commissioners reviewed a draft outline covering the early sections of a potential new charter at the meeting but took no formal action, instead referring the matter for further research and a future work session.
The Citrus Tea has reached out to the Village Clerk’s office requesting the original 1927 charter document, along with any records detailing specific provisions under consideration for revision. We are awaiting a response and will follow up with a deeper look at the charter’s actual language, what has aged well and what commissioners believe needs to change, once those records are available.
For now, Highland Park’s leadership appears committed to a deliberate, voter-involved process rather than a rushed rewrite, in keeping with a village that has spent a century protecting its small-town character one commission meeting at a time.
Sources:
WTSP, Tampa Bay’s local news source, “Discover Highland Park village: Florida’s historic gem”
Village of Highland Park Regular Meeting Minutes, March 25, 2026, highlandpark-fl.org
