West Villages Town Center Neighborhood Meeting

The master developer for West Villages held a required neighborhood meeting on June 14, 2016 in the new West Villages Improvement District offices located in the old South County Resource Center off West Villages Parkway. There was an overflow crowed of interested folks for this meeting and the small meeting room only held about 50 or so with many more folks standing in the hall way outside the room, and some even leaving because of the crowd. The developer even ran a second meeting to accommodate those who had been out in the hall way.

This meeting satisfied a regulatory requirement to notify and solicit comments from those persons residing within 1/4 mile of the perimeter of the proposed project. So, only a small hand full of such persons were expected for the meeting. However, the notification letter received widespread re-distribution within the two adjacent subdivisions. Hence, the overflow crowd.

Marty Black represented the developer at the meeting to make the preliminary development pattern plan for Village D (town center) known to the public. There were no handouts at the meeting, so this cell phone photo of the plan is all there is to show right now.

Not a lot of detail and the legend can't be read from this photo. The two pink areas along US 41 between IslandWalk and West Villages Parkway are for retail and commercial space. The orange area along the Parkway is for multistory, multifamily development (condos and apartments). The two green shade areas at the south end of this overall 626 acre project are to be single family residential subdivisions.

According to Mr. Black, this broad brush land use plan is the first step in a long approval process. Once the City of North Port approves this concept, the developer will then begin more detailed site planning. There is a public meeting for this next step planned for sometime in late July in North Port.

Those of us who have been following events in the West Villages will recall that just a short 6 months or so ago there was a much different looking concept plan for the development of this acreage. Land clearing was to begin in 2016 with completion in late 2017. Now, the new timeline has the town center (Village D) opening sometime in 2018. Will we ever see a Publix in the West Villages???? Ever since 2011 or so the mantra has been Publix coming next year....next year.....next year.

There were a few questions and answers about other events in the West Villages. There is no final word on the Atlanta Braves spring training facility. The FDOT will decide in the next few weeks if a round-a-bout is a better alternative to a traffic light for the intersection between Gran Paradiso and IslandWalk. Some form of traffic control will be installed; that has been decided. BUT, what that will be may not be what most of us would like it to be. Hold your breath and lets see what the FDOT decides.