{"id":65677,"date":"2026-05-15T21:04:34","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T01:04:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=65677"},"modified":"2026-05-15T21:04:40","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T01:04:40","slug":"wedgewood-developer-offers-city-423k-and-land-in-exchange-for-825-units","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/05\/15\/wedgewood-developer-offers-city-423k-and-land-in-exchange-for-825-units\/","title":{"rendered":"Wedgewood developer offers city $423K and land in exchange for 825 units"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The City of Lakeland is moving forward with a revised development agreement and a “Minor Modification” for the redevelopment of the former Wedgewood Golf Course<\/strong>. SJD Development, LLC, has submitted a scaled-back layout that alters both the density and the surrounding infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Lakeland City Commission is scheduled to hold a public hearing and vote on the development agreement on Monday, May 18, 2026<\/strong>, followed by a Planning & Zoning Board review of the modified site plan the next day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Key Takeaways of the Agreement<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The proposal represents a significant pivot from previous, more dense iterations of the project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  • Reduced Density:<\/strong> The overall housing count drops from 973 units to 825 units<\/strong> (a major reduction from the original 1,400 residences envisioned back in 2022).<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • A Shift in Housing Mix:<\/strong> The developer is swapping out taller apartment blocks for townhomes to better address neighborhood height concerns:\n
      \n
    • 370<\/strong> multi-family (apartment) units (down from 700)<\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • 394<\/strong> single-family attached (townhome) units (up from 212)<\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • 61<\/strong> single-family detached homes<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Infrastructure & Funding Contributions:<\/strong> To secure the rights to build these 825 units and mitigate traffic impact on the highly congested Carpenters Way corridor, the developer is offering the city several concessions:\n
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      • Financial Prepayment:<\/strong> A cash prepayment of $423,413.47<\/strong> in future city transportation impact fees. This money will fund the developer’s proportionate share of realigning Wedgewood Estates Boulevard and improving the intersection at Carpenters Way and Heatherpoint Drive.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
      • Land Donations:<\/strong> The donation of four specific parcels of property (including 11 acres of land) to the city to facilitate the long-planned extension of Lakeland Park Center Drive<\/strong> just north of Interstate 4. This connection will link Carpenters Way directly to the shopping plaza near Target and Dick’s Sporting Goods.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
      • Multimodal Upgrades:<\/strong> Installation of a transit shelter on Lakeland Park Drive and the creation of internal pedestrian\/bicycle trail networks connecting directly to Douglas Cook Park.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
        \n\n\n\n

        Ongoing Neighborhood Concerns<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

        Despite the reduction in unit numbers and the promise of new roadway connections, many nearby residents remain highly skeptical. During recent public comment sessions, neighbors voiced major anxieties regarding:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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        Flooding and Drainage:<\/strong> Longtime residents argue that the shuttered, 117-acre golf course has severely deteriorated since closing in 2021. There are persistent worries that inserting hundreds of new foundations will exacerbate existing neighborhood stormwater runoff, though the developer\u2019s engineering firm, Tract Engineering, maintains that the new spread-out design is explicitly styled to preserve green spaces and ease drainage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        Long-term Maintenance:<\/strong> Neighbors are pressing for rigid, legally enforceable guarantees regarding who will pay for and maintain the extensive network of retention ponds and common areas over time, fearing the burden could ultimately fall on local homeowners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        Traffic Controls:<\/strong> While the road alignment changes are agreed upon, residents are actively pushing the city to mandate a roundabout at the intersection of Wedgewood Estates Boulevard and Carpenters Way during the impending final engineering and permitting phases to slow down cut-through traffic.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

        If commissioners sign off on the development agreement on May 18, the project will still need to clear phased site-plan reviews and environmental permitting before any construction equipment rolls onto the former greens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        The City of Lakeland is moving forward with a revised development agreement and a “Minor Modification” for the redevelopment of the former Wedgewood Golf Course. SJD Development, LLC, has submitted… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":65678,"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":"12","_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":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDVcL2ltYWdlcy02LndlYnA_Zml0PTI1MyUyQzE5OSZzc2w9MSIsInR4dCI6IldlZGdld29vZCBkZXZlbG9wZXIgb2ZmZXJzIGNpdHkgJDQyM0sgYW5kIGxhbmQgaW4gZXhjaGFuZ2UgZm9yIDgyNSB1bml0cyIsInRlbXBsYXRlIjoiZG9pcyIsImZvbnQiOiIiLCJibG9nX2lkIjoxNjMwNDA2NjF9.BzU0PTASPckMnqiZUCFv2aBvv4IX1yQsX1adfcTpeoYMQ"},"version":2,"media_source":"sig","attached_media":[{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/jetpack.com\/redirect\/?source=sigenerate&query=t%3DeyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvbGFrZWxhbmRnYXpldHRlLmluZm9cL25ld3NcL3dwLWNvbnRlbnRcL3VwbG9hZHNcLzIwMjZcLzA1XC9pbWFnZXMtNi53ZWJwIiwidHh0IjoiV2VkZ2V3b29kIGRldmVsb3BlciBvZmZlcnMgY2l0eSAkNDIzSyBhbmQgbGFuZCBpbiBleGNoYW5nZSBmb3IgODI1IHVuaXRzIiwidGVtcGxhdGUiOiJkb2lzIiwiZm9udCI6IiIsImJsb2dfaWQiOjE2MzA0MDY2MX0.LyKLs9dWzdpTyBvry9Dic9wRGSQtZWE0AhZFLhJFCt0MQ","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[14626],"class_list":["post-65677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news","tag-wedgewood-developer-offers-city-423k-and-land-in-exchange-for-825-units"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65677","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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65677"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65677\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65679,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65677\/revisions\/65679"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}