PepperTree Apartments on U.S. 301 is a step closer to nearly doubling in size after a site plan for a major expansion was recommended for approval Tuesday at a meeting of the Wildwood Planning and Zoning Board.
Special Magistrate Grant Watson recommended approval of the plan to add 244 units to the 300-unit apartment complex on about 12 acres north of PepperTree Lane once designated for commercial development.Â
Watson’s recommendation is pending resolution of outstanding comments by the city engineer, Sumter County Fire and other departments. The City Commission is expected to act on the plan later this month.
Last fall, the commission approved a land use plan amendment to allow the project after it was reviewed by the state and recommended for approval by Watson.
For years, PepperTree, built in 2011, was one of the few affordable apartment developments in the Wildwood area. Now, several apartment communities are planned or under construction such as Wildwood Preserve on Powell Road across from Millennium Park, where 126 units are planned and exterior walls of several buildings on the site recently went up.
PepperTree offers one- to three-bedroom apartments with amenities that include a clubhouse, fitness center, basketball courts, business center and swimming pool.
The complex offers some apartments at $900 to $1,200 a month and a study early last year found it was the only market-rate apartment community in Wildwood.
PepperTree has been a source of police calls. Most calls have been minor, but a woman lost part of her ear last October when she was attacked by a man with a pair of channel lock pliers. Earlier this year, a PepperTree resident was jailed on a drunk driving charge after crashing her Jeep when heading out for a Big Mac.
