New rental type in Lakewood Ranch?

Lakewood Ranch developer Schroeder-Manatee Ranch is setting the stage for a new type of housing in the East County area — a community of single-family detached rental homes.

SMR representative Darenda Marvin on March 12 told Manatee County planning commissioners SMR had identified such a user interested in purchasing about 30 acres located generally east of Lakewood Ranch Boulevard, north of Wood Fern Trail and about one-half mile west of White Eagle Boulevard.

Marvin said they expect the new housing offering to be popular with renters who want their own yards or people who want to try Lakewood Ranch living before buying a home, for example.

“It is the quickest growing market throughout the U.S. and very popular in the southwest areas, in Texas and Utah,” she said of home rental communities. “It will appear as a single-family development. They will not be for-sale products, and it will be managed like an apartment.”

The property currently is part of the Lakewood Ranch Commerce Park, across from the Lakewood Ranch Business Park. Marvin said the 30-acre parcel is isolated and it makes sense to fold it into the adjacent Lakewood Centre Development of Regional Impact, which is primarily residential.

“For many years those have not completely developed (as industrial). We’re still in a position we are gaining residential for that employment to come,” Marvin said.

For the deal to come through, SMR must get approval from both the state of Florida and Manatee County commissioners to change the Comprehensive Plan Future Land Use Map from light industrial to mixed-use community, with a subarea of residential.

After that, SMR will ask to bring the property into its Lakewood Centre Development of Regional Impact, which is primarily residential. Manatee County commissioners will have to approve the changes.

Potential Changes for NE Quadrant

At the March 12 Manatee County Planning Commission meeting, Lakewood Ranch developer Schroeder-Manatee Ranch requested to reduce office, commercial, and multifamily entitlements on its Northeast Quadrant Development of Regional Impact. Instead, it seeks to build more single-family homes.

SMR representative Darenda Marvin said SMR has been conducting master planning of that area and determined there is an exorbitant amount of commercial, industrial and office approved for the land compared with market and land development trends.

The request seeks to slash retail, office and light industrial square footage collectively from about 10.7 million to 2.6 million square feet, or roughly 75.7%. It roughly halves the amount of multifamily units, and nearly doubles the amount of single-family homes.

The DRI generally comprises the area between State Roads 64 and 70, east of Lorraine Road to the future Bourneside Boulevard.

Marvin said traffic analysis shows a reduction in overall vehicle trips generated on the site.

The requested changes are as follows:

Currently Approved/Proposed

From 2,865,548 sq. ft retail to 800,000 sq. ft retail

From 2,285,584 sq. ft office to 900,000 sq. ft office

From 5,559,454 sq. ft to 900,000 sq. ft light industrial light industrial

From 5,2303 single-family to 10,000 single-family
detached units detached units

From 2,541 single-family to 3,000 single-attached units family attached units

3,228 multifamily units to  1,500 multifamily units