After Lake County gave developer Bobby Ginn a green light, Combs singlehandedly has stopped development progress on an estimated $75-million, 500-unit single-family and multifamily project with two 18-hole golf courses.

Combs told commissioners she has surveys documenting the existence of six historical Native American burial sites on the mixed-use Pine Island development overlooking Lake Apopka near County Road 455, about 40 miles northwest of Downtown Orlando. She alleges a seventh burial site is on County Road 455 where the county is finishing a $70,000 road drainage project.

"No way in hell the county is going to dig up that road work to check on graves that may or may not be underneath the road," a subcontractor representative working on the project tells GlobeSt.com on condition of anonymity. County officials had no formal comment on the road work but clearly are bothered by the allegations on the Pine Island venture.

Combs could not be reached for comment at GlobeSt.com's publication deadline. However, she told a public hearing in Tavares, the county seat, four separate Indian nations are preparing briefs to prevent the development over their ancestors' graves.

Caught unprepared and without detailed documentation proving or disproving potential burial sites, the county is scrambling to obtain a cost estimate for a detailed survey of the alleged site areas from Archaeological Consultants Inc. of Sarasota.

"The last thing the county wants is for this issue to be blown up into what could become a political battleground and later a political grave yard," a Tavares political consultant tells GlobeSt.com on condition of anonymity. "This came as a big surprise to the commissioners. It came out of the blue."

The state, meanwhile, has opened an investigation on Combs' charges. But Florida Community Development Agency officials say the only preliminary documentation they have on Native American burial sites is on Hull Island, a one-acre sliver of dirt southwest of Pine Island and not threatened by Ginn's proposed development.

Through an associate, Ginn, president of Ginn Development Co., Palm Coast, FL, tells GlobeSt.com he would never build a subdivision over hallowed burial grounds. He would, instead, revise his 1,500-acre venture for the fourth time to accommodate Native American families, the developer says.