The Mundy Mill mega-development may never be what it was cracked up to be.

When the 605-acre planned development was approved in 2004, all the single-family homes were to have tiled baths and the recreation areas were to have tennis courts, gazebos, grills and picnic tables.

But a new proposal by the city’s planning department eases 12 of the current zoning conditions on the development and would allow for smaller homes with a little vinyl siding — a material that had been completely shunned from the original plans.

The proposal also removes the requirement to build tennis courts, gazebos, grills and picnic tables and lowers the expectation of a tiled bath to a ceramically-tiled bathroom floor.

Developers who had been required to convert an old residence on the property into a clubhouse for residents would no longer be tied to that idea.

The proposal will be heard at Tuesday’s Planning and Appeals Board meeting, but a final decision will be made by the City Council next month.

Gainesville’s Community Development Director Rusty Ligon called the proposal "a proactive approach to get this development going again."

Currently, 57 property owners have a stake in the development that is bordered by Mundy Mill Road, Meeks Drive, Mountain View Road and Old Oakwood Road.

Ligon said the city initiated the zoning change, because it would be "logistically" impossible to receive support from all of the property owners in a timely manner.

If approved by the council, Ligon said the proposal will remove requirements for developers to build a minimum of 350,000 square feet of commercial, retail or office space before the first apartment complex can be built.

The commercial requirements originally were adopted to alleviate concerns of the development’s impact on the city’s school system, said Matt Tate of the development department.

"That particular condition, we felt by removing it would alleviate and allow for various (sections of the development) in there to move forward without being held up for, say, a commercial component to have to come in," Tate said. "...A residential component, that’s going to help spur (on) and improve chances of a commercial component coming in."

While the development standards are changing, a planning document states the new standards will "maintain a high quality."

Robby Lanier, of REL Properties, the main developer on the Mundy Mill project, did not return calls seeking comment from The Times Friday.