{"id":13425,"date":"2021-07-19T16:24:53","date_gmt":"2021-07-19T20:24:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=13425"},"modified":"2021-07-19T16:24:57","modified_gmt":"2021-07-19T20:24:57","slug":"lakeland-commissioners-approve-a-zoning-change-for-a-32-townhouse-complex-near-lake-parker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2021\/07\/19\/lakeland-commissioners-approve-a-zoning-change-for-a-32-townhouse-complex-near-lake-parker\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakeland Commissioners approve a zoning change for a 32-townhouse complex near Lake Parker"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Lakeland officials have given the&nbsp;green light to a proposed townhouse complex&nbsp;off the west shore of Lake Parker. It&#8217;s the second housing development approved near the&nbsp;lake within&nbsp;two months.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The City Commission&nbsp;unanimously approved a zoning change from single-family residential to a planned unit development for a proposal to build&nbsp;32 units on 4 acres along Druid Street. The project has been named Lakeshore Landings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/maps\/d\/embed?mid=1qtbOfPZWVmGN41N7m5FOfGWon_2__08I\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;If you&nbsp;make&nbsp;this zoning change, it will be forever, you will change Druid&nbsp;Street forever,&#8221; said Mike Boyle, a Druid Street resident for more than 50 years. &#8220;The additional housing is great but not to the level you are going to triple the amount of homes on Druid Street.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Residents&#8217; concerns about potential traffic and flooding impacts from stormwater runoff have already led city commissioners to request the plans be scaled back since February, when the project was first reviewed,&nbsp;according to Teresa Maio, Lakeland&#8217;s planning and housing manager.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mark Wilson, an engineer with Lakeland-based Kimbly-Horn, said many changes in size and scope have been made. The development&#8217;s footprint was reduced from around 4.5 to 4 acres in size, and the number of&nbsp;townhomes was reduced from 40 to 32. This lowered the proposed&nbsp;density from 8.8 to 7.8 units per acre.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;We align well with this area with 50-foot lots and we are fitting right in as a transition&nbsp;from a higher density to lower density,&#8221; Wilson said, citing the adjacent Lakeland Harbor Condominiums.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Wilson said that a large stormwater retention pond has been added to the plans on the southeast corner of the property in an effort to keep stormwater on-site, rather than washing downhill toward the lake.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;I think this is a lot better project than it was when it was originally presented to us,&#8221; Commissioner Bill Read.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Druid Street homeowner John Lemond said he&#8217;s grateful for the changes&nbsp;but still not sold on the new addition to the neighborhood.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;Kimbly-Horn has done a good job in reducing traffic and rearranging the orientation,&#8221; Lemond said. &#8220;I still don\u2019t like it will be across the street from me. I can appreciate the work they have done.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Other residents disagreed as they expressed concern about the impact the development&#8217;s entrance will have on Druid Road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;I don\u2019t welcome this extra traffic,&#8221; Barry Sears, who owns two properties&nbsp;on Druid Street.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As part of the city&#8217;s conditions, the developer will be required to widen Druid Street from 16 to 20 feet between Gilmore Avenue and the complex&#8217;s entrance, according to Chuck Barmby, the city&#8217;s transportation and development review manager. This brings the roadway up to Lakeland&#8217;s current street standards as the additional width allows&nbsp;firetruck access.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Lakeland is also requiring the builder to construct a sidewalk along Druid Street to connect with the Channing Road sidewalk to improve the area&#8217;s pedestrian walkability. There will be a six-foot tall&nbsp;wall and landscaping as a buffer between the complex and surrounding properties, including the 55-plus&nbsp;senior community next door.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;We want to make sure we have \u2014&nbsp;and I think it&#8217;s very well done&nbsp;\u2014&nbsp;is workforce housing,&#8221; Commissioner Phillip Walker said. &#8220;This is workforce housing that we desperately need in the overall Lakeland community.&nbsp;I see it being an asset in that area.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lakeland officials have given the&nbsp;green light to a proposed townhouse complex&nbsp;off the west shore of Lake Parker. It&#8217;s the second housing development approved near the&nbsp;lake within&nbsp;two months.&nbsp; The City Commission&nbsp;unanimously&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13426,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"0","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[839],"class_list":["post-13425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news","tag-32-townhouse-complex-near-lake-parker"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13425"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13425\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}