County approves Pat Neal project

MANATEE COUNTY — On a vacant parcel across from The Cascades community, developer Pat Neal has begun work on his newest community — Woodbrook.

Manatee County commissioners on April 7 unanimously approved a preliminary site plan for Woodbrook, a 213-home project slated for 95 acres at the southeast corner of Lockwood Ridge Road and Honore Avenue. The project also includes 28,800 square feet for commercial space, with opportunities for retail stores, restaurants, professional or medical office and personal services uses such as a hair salon.

“There’s definitely demand for a kids school, nursery school or preschool,” said project developer Pat Neal, owner of Neal Communities. “We’re trying to get a Starbucks, too.”

Manatee County District 4 Commissioner Robin DiSabatino, a resident of the Cascades community, said she shared the project plan with residents several months ago, at their request, and residents were pleased the project now will not include any drive-thru fast-food restaurants.

“They are very supportive,” DiSabatino said of residents. “I thought it was a very nice plan.”

Groundwork for the project commenced last month after the developer earned construction approval under a previous site plan. Last week’s changes, however, reduced the amount of commercial space being proposed — from about 109,000 to roughly 29,000 — and changed the housing product type being offered, Neal said.

Neal said homes in the Woodbrook Community would be similar to those in River Sound, a gated 172-unit single-family home and cottage development off Caruso Road that opened about two years ago. The community has only 37 home sites remaining, and Neal said he hopes to have model homes in Woodbrook open the day Neal finishes selling there.

More than half the 95-acre site is being preserved.

Neal, who planned Mote Ranch and built University Park, says the area is a great location because of its easy access to Interstate 75 as well as access to quality schools, shopping, entertainment and more.
“I think of this as a very desirable Sarasota address,” Neal said.

Neal said he hopes to have the first model homes open to the public by November of this year, with residents moving in sometime in the first quarter of 2012.

The property is located across from the Cascades community and immediately northwest of Mote Ranch and Palm Aire.

Contact Pam Eubanks at [email protected].

In other business:

• The East Manatee Bulldogs football and cheerleading organization now can celebrate the pending construction of their new permanent facility at Lakewood Ranch Park. Manatee commissioners last week unanimously approved improvements to the park, including a 5,000-square-foot building for the youth club, and a rezone of about 16.7 acres at the southwest intersection of Lakewood Ranch Boulevard and Malachite Drive.

• Commissioners approved unanimously an addition to Rosedale. Developers plan to construct 475 single-family homes on roughly 273 acres south of the 44th Avenue Extension, west of Lakewood Ranch Boulevard and east of the existing Rosedale Highlands Subdivision. Previously, the site was slated for a nine-hole golf course and 306 single-family homes.

 • Commissioners approved 5-1 an amendment to the Northwest Sector Development of Regional Impact, a 39-acre parcel north of State Road 70 on Lakewood Ranch Boulevard. Changes allow the developer to use an option for zero lot lines as an alternative for construction.

Todd Pokrywa, vice president of planning for Lakewood Ranch developer Schroeder-Manatee Ranch, said the zero lot line provision is one being requested by Taylor Morrison for its project, Esplanade.

“Anywhere in the Northwest Sector, it would be an alternative,” he said.

• Commissioners continued to May 5 a hearing on Wilderness Crossing, a 68-home project slated for 37 acres on the north side of Upper Manatee River Road, about 1.5 miles west of Rye Road Northwest. The project is located at 14641 Upper Manatee River Road.