Apartments or town homes could be part of the massive Villages of Southern Oaks development south of State Road 44 in Wildwood.
The scope of the development also will be increased by an amendment to the development agreement reviewed Tuesday at a meeting of the Wildwood Planning and Zoning Board.
Special Magistrate Grant Watson recommended three related ordinances for approval by the City Commission.
Early this year, The Villages announced it would build 11,000 homes or more on 4,518 acres, mostly south of the Florida Turnpike, east of U.S. 301 and on both sides of County Road 468.
The amendment would permit construction of 26,590 homes, up 31 percent from the previous maximum total, on 8,059 acres, up more than 78 percent from the prior land area.
Non-residential uses, including commercial, would be cut about 45 percent to 925,000 square feet while governmental and office uses would be increased by 166 percent to 765,000 square feet.
Urban agriculture, community farming and development of recreational vehicles would be added to permitted uses by the amendment.
Maximum density also would be increased, which will allow development of multi-family housing such as apartments or town homes, said Darrin Taylor, an attorney representing Villages Land Co.
Taylor said more than 60 percent of the land already has been approved for development and it will be limited to those approved areas.
The amendment also removes a stipulation that residents must be age 55 or over, but would require that the project is consistent with federal and Florida fair housing requirements for age-restricted communities.
A separate ordinance would change the use of 1,459 acres to age-restricted development from various agricultural and residential uses. The property, which will be part of the Southern Oaks development, is north of the Florida Turnpike in three separate areas. Ten parcels near the Wildwood Country Resort were removed from the proposed ordinance.
A third related ordinance would add 97 parcels on 9,549 acres to the Wildwood Joint Planning Area. The property, which is scattered from south of the turnpike to north along U.S. 301, includes recently annexed land and about 9,137 acres would be classified as agricultural. A major portion of this agricultural land is along.
If all of the land were developed, it would add an estimated 6,509 residents, nearly doubling Wildwood’s population.
