Residents oppose extra height

WATERCREST — As Connie McKenzie overlooks Lake Uihlein and Lakewood Ranch Main Street from the patio of her Watercrest condominium, she pulls out a colorful pamphlet of what she thought would be developed on the three-acre parcel behind Lakewood Ranch Cinemas.

The brochure, produced by Homes by Towne, developer of Watercrest, depicts four five-level buildings with a facade much like the four-level structures in her 19-building neighborhood.

McKenzie, the first homeowner in Watercrest, attended a focus group for that project, then called The Waterfront at Main Street. The developer had even installed four elevator shafts on the property in preparation for construction.

“This was the plan,” McKenzie says, opening the brochure, which shows 56 units, each between 3,125 and 3,532 square feet. “This is what we knew about.”

But those plans could be changing.

Lakewood Ranch developer Schroeder-Manatee Ranch has requested changes to its University Lakes Development of Regional Impact that would allow construction of up to seven stories on the Lakewood Ranch Main Street parcel, dubbed Parcel 21.

The request includes no number of units and no maximum height. Such details would come later, after DRI modifications are granted and the site developer submits a formal site plan to Manatee County.

Residents in Watercrest and other surrounding communities are concerned. They say a seven-level building is not compatible with buildings on Lakewood Ranch Main Street and that an increase in height will result in more residential units and, consequently, more traffic congestion on Lakewood Ranch Boulevard.

“To say the least, a potential tower of seven stories anywhere in Lakewood Ranch is a total debacle,” wrote Ian Bacon, a resident of Edgewater and a board member for the Country Club/Edgewater Village Association, in a note to Manatee County commissioners. “We bought into a planned community with low-rise buildings, both residential and commercial. Lakewood Ranch is not an urban city.”

Watercrest resident Mike Mahon doesn’t disapprove of growth, but he does object to this proposal.

“If you look at this town center area, it’s very low profile stuff,” he said. “Realty has overtaken a plan they (made) 10 years ago. We have a lovely suburban center. SMR did a fantastic job on this place.”

As for traffic, McKenzie said she often has trouble making a left turn on to Lakewood Ranch Boulevard from Watercrest.

“We’re just careful,” she said.

Resident Kathleen Grant agrees.

“The traffic congestion at Market Street already is a problem,” Grant said. “It’s like adding the proverbial straw on the camel’s back. There have been a lot of changes in the area since the original approval. Circumstances have changed.”

She, like other Watercrest residents, advocates the Manatee County Board of County commissioners either deny the change, or at least defer it when they vote on the item Oct. 2 so the county and residents can monitor traffic impacts once the Mall at University Town Center and The Venue apartments open in the coming months.

“These units directly impact Lakewood Ranch Boulevard. It does make a difference,” Grant said. “At what point do you say this is too much?”

McKenzie agreed: “I think the feeling is, it’s been eight, nine, 10 years, but we should wait and see until we know the impacts of this huge apartment complex we didn’t know about and the mall.”

SMR’s attorney, Caleb Grimes, however, says SMR already has planned for such changes.

The site in question, he said, was originally approved for a 10-story hotel/motel or office building, or five stories of residential. The requested change makes sense and is in line with other approvals and the vision for the property. Traffic impacts to Lakewood Ranch Boulevard and the surrounding road network also were accounted for when SMR analyzed traffic impacts for the overall DRI, which includes nearly 4,000 residential units and more than 818,000 square feet of commercial space, among other entitlements.

“This area of University Lakes has always been planned for this type of use,” Grimes told the Manatee County Planning Commission, which had a 3-3 vote on whether to recommend to commissioners approval of the request. “The idea was that in this part of University Lakes, this is where we would have our more urban-type activity and urban-type center.

Grimes also noted the request does not include an increase in units for University Lakes, although SMR may move units from one portion of its University Lakes project to another.

Manatee County Planner Shelly Hamilton, who is handling the project, said SMR’s original DRI request included 120 units on the Lakewood Ranch Main Street parcel, including lofts already built above a section of Main Street.

She said a developer plans to construct 93 units on the parcel in question, although no plans have been submitted to the county for review.

BY THE NUMBERS
To date, the following projects have been completed, are under construction or have received some level of detailed site plan approval within the University Lakes DRI:

1,475 single-family units

88 single-family attached units

1,285 multifamily units

483,530 square feet of regional commercial

120 hospital beds

52,764 square feet of neighborhood commercial

799,941 square feet of office

18,603 square feet of industrial

215 hotel rooms

Remaining entitlements include:

1,092 residential units (27% of total)

193,976 square feet regional commercial (28% of total)

30 hospital beds (20% of total)

88,534 square feet of neighborhood commercial (63% of total)

405 hotel rooms (65% of total)

No industrial entitlements remaining

Contact Pam Eubanks at [email protected].