A proposal to ease some of the zoning conditions on the mega-development on Mundy Mill Road won’t be heard by Gainesville’s Planning and Appeals Board until representatives of Gainesville’s school system can negotiate with developers about the future school site on the development.
On Tuesday, the city’s Community Development Director Rusty Ligon asked the board to table a discussion on the 604-acre residential development, which is supposed to house a 17-acre site for an elementary school.
The request came after Superintendent Merrianne Dyer wrote a letter to city planners asking for more time to speak with developers about the plans for a school on the property.
Original plans for the development deeded a 17-acre site of the development to the city school system for an elementary school.
School officials already have completed an environmental study, performed environmental mitigation and completed architectural plans for the new school. But the school system has yet to receive a title to the land, Dyer said, and school officials want to make sure any future developers keep the elementary school in future plans.
Dyer’s letter, dated Feb. 4, stated that the school board had learned all the sections of the development “are in default to various lending institutions,” and some lots had been foreclosed and sold to new owners.
“We certainly don’t want to stop anyone from buying it, because we certainly want someone to develop it, but we would like to work with whoever does develop it and keep the school there,” Dyer said.
When the Mundy Mill 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 recent 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.
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.
Ligon previously has called the proposal “a proactive approach to get this development going again.”
The proposal also removes 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 school system.
On Wednesday, Dyer said the school board has no objection to the city’s proposed changes to the development, but that it only wants to be involved.
The school board also has asked the city to add another change to the zoning conditions that gives the school system until 2017 to build the elementary school there.
Originally, plans called for having the school built by 2013, Dyer said. But as enrollment growth has slowed, Dyer said the school system probably won’t need the school until 2015 or 2016.
“Regardless of how much (of the Mundy Mill development) is developed, we still have the need as far as that area,” Dyer said. “But our student enrollment has slowed down, as with everyone, so it’s not a pressing need right now.”
The school board likely will have a called meeting in the coming weeks to discuss the changes to the development before the March 9 meeting of the Planning and Appeals Board, Dyer said, but that date has not yet been scheduled.
Ligon did not return calls seeking comment by press time Wednesday. Developer Robby Lanier of REL Properties also did not return a call seeking comment.