A Villager has been appointed to the Lady Lake Planning and Zoning Board as a recent recommendation on apartments at town square looms large in a lawsuit.
James T. “Tim” Saunders was appointed to the board on Monday night in a 3-2 vote by the Lady Lake Commission. Saunders is a resident of the Village of Country Club Hills and moved to The Villages five years ago. He served as a transportation planner in Greensboro, N.C. and also worked at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
The board drew an overflow crowd last year when it turned down a request from The Villages to construct apartments at Spanish Springs Town Square. It recommended the commission do the same. Although the planning and zoning board serves in a non-binding advisory capacity, the commission chose to follow that recommendation in a controversial 3-2 vote, which is now the subject of a lawsuit by The Villages.
Saunders won the appointment over the applicant with the second most number of votes, Edward Regan, who lives in Avenida Sonoma Villas at Spanish Springs.
The vacancy on the planning and zoning board was created by the death of 81-year-old Regis Lorenzo LeClerc, a resident of Water Oak. He died April 11. He had been named to the planning and zoning board in 2017.
Another opening is expected in December when current member Nora Choquette will be moving out of the town limits.
