Powell Road and its County Road 462 extension were a hotbed for development at Tuesday’s meeting of the Wildwood Planning and Zoning Board.
Five projects, including bank buildings, swimming pools, offices, restaurants and a church expansion, along the corridor between State Road 44A and U.S. 301, were recommended for approval by Special Magistrate W. Grant Watson. Final action by the city commission is expected later this month.
Starting from the south, Watson reviewed a site plan for Brownwood Professional Plaza, which includes a 45,600-square-foot Citizens First Bank operations center and a 25,200-square-foot office building on an 18-acre triangular piece of property north of State Road 44A.
The development will include a golf cart connection to an adjacent Villages neighborhood where residents opposed the project earlier this year. The parcel used to be part of Millennium Park but was separated from the park a decade ago by the realignment of Powell Road. After several years of trying to sell it, the bank bought the property for $3 million.
Up the street, Watson recommended approval of Dr. Hassanein Plaza, a mixed-use development planned to include medical and professional offices, as well as stores and restaurants on nearly five acres just south of the Sumter County Villages Annex building. The city commission will consider reclassifying the land from institutional-public facilities to commercial mixed-use.
A pair of swimming pools are on the drawing board for the Beaumont property on the northeast corner of county roads 466A and 462. A site plan calls for a 5,050-square-foot pool building along with a pool, deck, recreation courts, parking, a driveway and other improvements. A second project includes a 580-square-foot pool building with a pool, deck and other improvements on about four acres.
More than 400 homes are planned on the Beaumont property with businesses along the county roads, where the developer is offering parcels for sale.
Heading west around the CR 462 curve, a Starvos & Sons pizza restaurant is planned on 1.2 acres on the road’s north side at County Road 132. The restaurant chain, which started in Daytona Beach, now operates at more than a dozen locations, many in Lake County.
Harry Draegers, a 75-year Wildwood resident who owns a farm next to the proposed restaurant, objected to the project.
He said the business would cause a safety issue and possible lawsuits because he plans to use his property for bison grazing. He said diners may see the bison and decide to get too close to them. Five churches are within a mile and children are in the area.
Jerry Green, whose family owns the proposed restaurant property, said developing the restaurant is a way to keep the land in the family.
“The goal is to have something that our neighbors and everyone else can enjoy,” he said. “We want it to be a blessing to our community.”
Watson recommended approval with a 20-foot buffer and a fence to block access to the bison herd.
The special magistrate also endorsed a site plan for a 24,785-square-foot expansion of Village of Faith Baptist Church on about nine acres across the road from the proposed pizza restaurant.