Welaunee and Canopy in Tallahassee, Florida

Welaunee is a northeast Tallahassee growth area that the Comprehensive Plan divides into three parts, the Toe, the Heel and the Arch.

The City of Tallahassee's Comprehensive Plan page lists the Welaunee Critical Area Plan among the planned development master plans of the joint Tallahassee-Leon County Comprehensive Plan, alongside the Southeast Sector Plan and the Capital Circle Office Complex PUD Master Plan. The Welaunee Critical Area Plan, posted as the master plan for the Welaunee Toe, Heel and Arch as of December 31, 2025, sets the boundaries of each part.

The plan describes the Toe and Heel as new mixed-use communities meant to provide jobs, protect natural resources in an urbanized setting and favor walking and transportation alternatives. For the Arch it calls for a new, integrated community with a variety of land uses, a mixed-use activity center, residential areas with a range of housing choices and planned recreation and open space.

The Comprehensive Plan has carried Welaunee policies since December 2002, and the Arch master plan was revised in January 2021.

The Critical Area Plan dates Objective 13.1, planned development through 2020 in the Toe and Heel, to an effective date of December 10, 2002, and cites a Toe and Heel critical area plan document dated January 17, 2002. Its Toe and Heel overview policy carries revision dates of July 20, 2005 and August 27, 2017. Objective 13.2, the development concept for the Arch, also took effect December 10, 2002 and was revised effective January 11, 2021.

The 2021 Arch policies state that the Welaunee Arch is located wholly within the Urban Services Area and that its development is meant to discourage urban sprawl. That line matters because the Urban Services Area is where the City and County plan for urban development and services. The City planning history page explains the wider setting: south of the city the hills give way to flat terrain, most of southern Leon County is flat, sandy lowland, and the Apalachicola National Forest lies to the south.

Canopy is served by the Canopy Community Development District, a special district the City of Tallahassee created in 2017.

The district's founding Ordinance No. 17-O-08 says Ox Bottom Mortgage Holdings, LLC petitioned the City Commission to establish it, that the Commission held a public hearing on April 26, 2017, and that the district lies entirely within the City of Tallahassee, with external boundaries encompassing 424.17 acres, more or less. The City Treasurer-Clerk's certification on the copy records adoption by the City Commission on May 24, 2017.

The Canopy Community Development District describes itself as a local, special purpose government created by City ordinance under Chapter 190, Florida Statutes, to plan, acquire, operate and maintain community-wide improvements. It posts its board agendas, budgets and audits, including a Fiscal Year 2027 adopted budget and an October 14, 2026 meeting agenda, and lists an outside district management company as its management office.

The plan targets about 5,950 residents in the Toe and 4,600 in the Heel at buildout, with set shares of land for homes, shops, open space and civic uses.

The Critical Area Plan sets buildout employment of about 1,240 jobs in the Toe and 3,560 in the Heel. Residential uses take 35 to 45 percent of the Toe and 30 to 40 percent of the Heel; retail and office uses take 3 to 8 percent of the Toe, while retail, office and light industrial uses take 15 to 25 percent of the Heel. Primary open space and recreation, not counting the Miccosukee Canopy Road Greenway, covers 15 to 25 percent of the Toe and 20 to 30 percent of the Heel, and community, institutional, educational and civic uses cover 15 to 25 percent of the Toe and 10 to 20 percent of the Heel.

The plan also sizes its centers. A town center ranges from 10 to 30 acres and should mix uses horizontally and vertically, neighborhood centers range from 5 to 8 acres, and an employment center ranges from 15 to 150 acres, with uses such as offices, hotels, light industry and laboratories. Road access to the Toe from Fleischmann Road must meet City standards, access from Centerville Road is limited to one location, and impacts on the Miccosukee Canopy Road protection zone from access roads must be minimized. The Toe and Heel may develop in phases and at the same time.

The Arch is the largest remaining piece, and its first phase is moving through the City's PUD review.

The Critical Area Plan requires open space of at least 20 percent of Phase 1, 50 percent of Phase 2, 60 percent of Phase 3 and 40 percent of the total gross area of the Arch, unless offset through an alternative development program. Conservation and preservation areas account for about 19 percent of the Arch's gross area, and about 21 percent more is to be open space built into the development plans. Development phases must follow the infrastructure and services they need, and PUD concept plans must be consistent with the stormwater and transportation plans for their phase.

The City's zoning page lists the Welaunee Arch Phase 1 PUD as an active land use project: a PUD concept plan implementing the West Arch and North Arch districts of the Welaunee Master Plan, with two mixed-use centers along future Welaunee Boulevard, neighborhood and residential districts and a primary open space district. When checked on October 18, 2026, the page still showed a Development Review Committee meeting on September 14, a Planning Commission hearing on October 6 and a City Commission hearing on November 4 at 300 S. Adams St., and it gives 850-891-6400 for questions. The page does not say whether the October hearing went ahead, so that number is the place to confirm the schedule.

Blueprint is building Welaunee Boulevard north from Fleischman Road toward Roberts Road, including a new bridge over Interstate 10.

Blueprint's Northeast Gateway project funds Welaunee Boulevard from Fleischman Road to Roberts Road, a two-lane extension of Shamrock Street from Centerville Road to Welaunee Boulevard, and the Welaunee Greenway with connections to the Miccosukee Greenway. Construction of Phase I, south of I-10, began on November 6, 2023 and is anticipated to finish in early 2027, while final design for Phase II north of I-10 and for the greenway is underway. A new four-lane overpass bridge across I-10 began construction on June 22, 2025, with completion anticipated in mid 2027, setting up the final connection to Roberts Road and a potential new I-10 interchange. An access road to the Northeast Park, to be named Killmore Lane, began construction in 2025.

The Northeast Park will sit along Centerville Road next to Roberts Elementary and Montford Middle schools, Blueprint says, as an area park of about 50 acres serving neighborhoods within roughly 3 miles and the rural community of northeast Leon County, with Leon County Parks and Recreation managing it.

Welaunee's edges are protected roads. The City of Tallahassee lists Centerville and Miccosukee among the seven roads in Leon County officially designated as canopied roads, with limits on roadside development, and the Critical Area Plan names the Miccosukee Canopy Road Greenway as a feature its open space counts must exclude.

Last verified: October 18, 2026, against the Welaunee Critical Area Plan (as of December 31, 2025), the City's Comprehensive Plan, zoning and area history pages, two Blueprint project pages, and the Canopy Community Development District site and founding ordinance.