Developer to Ask For Major Retreat From Lake Wales Envisioned Plan Standards at Tuesday Planning and Zoning Meeting

Courtesy City of Lake Wales

This proposed design already approved by the Lake Wales City Commission would be modified to eliminate alleyways and allow for street-facing garages under a request to be considered by the Planning and Zoning board Tuesday. The plan already eliminated the outward-facing lots intended by the Lake Wales Envisioned Plan.. Property owners are requesting the changes because that have not yet found a developer who undertakes rear access driveways as proposed in the Lake Wales Envisioned plan.

Barely a year after winning approval for two large residential developments hailed for adhering in part to the vaunted Lake Wales Envisioned plan, both projects are being brought back to the Lake Wales Planning and Zoning Board at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday to attempt to remove the planned rear-access neighborhood designs.

Both Iron Mountain and Steeple Chase projects were approved after agreeing to incorporating the alleyways into the site designs.

The projects, approved for a combined 832 residential units, were intended to adhere to city codes requiring "traditional neighborhood design." Those designs offer "rear-loaded" housing, removing garages as the prominent architectural feature of new homes.

The Iron Mountain project lies on the northwest corner of the intersection of Burns Avenue and Buck Moore Road. Steeple Chase runs east from Scenic Highway adjacent to Ridge Manor and will spread across Ninth Street to include a parcel south of the existing Whispering Ridge neighborhood.

Courtesy City of Lake Wales

Changes would eliminate the alleysway in favor of all houses facing internal streets with front-facing garages.

Steeple Chase was initially delayed by the City Commission in May 2023 because it didn't comply with the commission's unadopted "aspirations" for future development. Since that time the adoption of many recommendations of the Envisioned plan codified, in theory, those aspirations. Steeple Chase was granted a total of 32 "waivers of strict compliance" from then-existing standards including side setbacks, lot widths, parking, and minimum lot sizes.

Property owner David A. Waronker has purchased, rezoned, and sold multiple parcels already under development around Lake Wales, including the expansive Hunt Club Groves featuring over a thousand new dwellings. The request states that "the applicant has not been able to find a developer willing to build the alley-loaded homes; therefore, the applicant is requesting an amendment to the approved plan which removes the alley."

Waronker has appeared before the city commission on a previous occasion and stated that "none of the national developers" are interested in building Traditional Neighborhood Designs. Studies incorporated into the Lake Wales Envisioned plan demonstrated the long-term increases in developments that utilized TND.

The staff report also states that "the proposed amended PDP would not meet the standards of the recently adopted PDP standards." The proposed changes also eliminates proposed apartments at the Iron Mountain site and reduces the original 292 single-family attached and detached dwelling units to 226. Once the changes are reviewed by the Planning and Zoning board they will advance to the city commission for consideration.

Courtesy City of Lake Wales

The approved site plan for Iron Mountain includes a mix of apartments, townhomes, and single-family homes, many served with alleyways providing for rear parking.

The Lake Wales Envisioned plan, developed with citizen input in a process led by the noted urban planning firm of Dover, Kohl & Partners, resulted in changes to city codes calling for rear alleyways and front porches to avoid what the city's planning consultant referred to as "garage-itechture." Those changes incorporate Traditional Neighborhood Designs (TND) that mimic the designs of older neighborhoods in Lake Wales.

The Iron Mountain project is already approved for single-family lots only 30 feet wide at the building line. A normal double garage width is 22 feet, so a double driveway and garage would dominate the entire frontage. The intent of the Envisioned Plan was to return to "Traditional Neighborhood Design" with rear garages allowing front porches and distinctive architecture.

The developer-preferred designs featuring small lots and front garages have been used extensively in Davenport, Haines City and other areas along the northern portion of the Lake Wales Ridge, as well as in the Hunt Club and multiple other projects underway in Lake Wales. Deputy Mayor Robin Gibson has noted on more than one occasion that "if you drive down the Ridge from Lake Placid to Clermont and can't tell Lake Wales from anyplace else, we have failed."

Courtesy City of Lake Wales

The proposed changes to Iron Mountain eliminate the apartments and relocate the townhomes while eliminating all alleyways in favor of front-loaded houses.