Residential Development Process

In recent columns I have noted that in order for our town to realize its best future, citizens need to be involved in growth management decisions. For citizens to feel comfortable in participating, it is necessary to have an understanding of the basics of the development process. Let’s review the typical process for approval of a residential development.

The first step for a developer is to meet with the City’s planning staff on a general concept for the development. Natural resources, particularly water bodies and stands of shade trees, are identified to be preserved and showcased, not obliterated. City standards are reviewed: lot size, minimum house size, water and sewer lines, drainage, street widths, etc. Also required are parks, underground utilities, landscaped buffers, street lights, sidewalks, as well as tree and wetlands preservation.

At this point, a decision is made whether the applicant intends to meet all of the development standards or to apply for “Planned Development Project” (PDP) approval, which allows some flexibility and creativity of layout. PDPs are encouraged because they result in less of a “cookie cutter” layout and provide the opportunity for more sensitivity to the natural resources.

The process is the same for a PDP as for a standard development: a recommendation from the Planning Board and approval by the City Commission. However, a PDP plan requires more care in design and a more rigorous review. Several revisions are normally required before the plan is presented to the Planning Board.

Often a developer prefers the PDP to allow for smaller lot sizes and other waivers. Approval of waivers is not granted easily. For instance, increased park acreage is required to compensate for reduced lot size. In Whispering Ridge, on 11th Street S., sidewalk requirements were relaxed on some of the small streets in favor of an 8-ft. wide, landscaped bikeway corridor through the development.

There is great opportunity for public input in the PDP process, while there is very little in the standard subdivision process. By law, an owner has a right to subdivide his land, if he meets all of the development standards. A PDP plan can be turned down by the City if it is not “superior” to a standard layout.

After approval of the preliminary plan (also called the “preliminary plat”) by the City Commission, detailed engineering plans are prepared, and various county and state permits are obtained. After City staff and the City engineer approve the plans, the developer can begin constructing the infrastructure --- water and sewer utilities, electric and (in some subdivisions) gas, streets and stormwater retention ponds. The City staff inspects the water and sewer infrastructure, since the ownership and maintenance of these mains will become the City’s responsibility. Depending upon the type of subdivision, the streets may also be turned over to the City. In such cases, they are similarly inspected.

The final step is the “platting” of the legal subdivision of the land into lots. Approval of the final plat by the City Commission is a formality, acknowledging that the plat meets all legal requirements. The final plat is then recorded with the clerk of courts. Only after the City Commission approves the final plat and it is properly recorded can the developer sell lots. By this time all of the infrastructure serving the lots has been constructed.

Through the review process, care is taken to design neighborhoods that reflect the character of Lake Wales – not a minimal design that could be approved anywhere else. Our City’s land development regulations were overhauled several years ago to do just that.

Margaret Swanson contributed to this article.

Principles of Good Planning

In this space last week I proposed that successful growth management requires active citizen participation. This is particularly true in Lake Wales, a special place that needs citizen involvement to ensure that the town can maintain its unique character through periods of intense development and expansion.

Whispering Ridge, a newly developing subdivision on 11th Street south of SR 60, is a good example of this concept. Six years ago a developer came forward with a plan that was a perfect grid of north-south and east-west streets, with 550 lots, all 50 feet wide. On Grove Avenue, which at that time was little more than a driveway from Minnesota to 10th Street, the developer proposed a 7-acre park that had no access other than the lots that backed up to it.

When Margaret Swanson arrived to take the position of City Planning Director, she came with a knowledge of the planning principles espoused by Frederick Law Olmsted – the designer of Central Park in New York City, the White House gardens, and the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893. (His sons designed the grounds at Historic Bok Sanctuary and prepared a landscaping plan for Lake Wales.) His principles include:

1. Have the best land reserved for public open space


2. Have natural-looking and irregular groupings of trees rather than orderly lines of trees


3. Have a “spine road” that takes you through an area, with side roads leading to neighborhoods


4. Have parks and open space throughout the development


5. Have interesting, curvilinear streets rather than straight line streets in a grid pattern


6. Have pedestrian walkways through interesting landscapes

These principles are the opposite of what had been presented in the first plan for the property. After many discussions and numerous draft drawings, a plan prepared by local landscape architect Marshall Whidden using Olmsted principles was endorsed by City staff and taken to the Planning and Zoning Board for approval.

This plan featured:

1. A spine road curving through the development from 11th Street to 9th Street. Along the road is an 8-foot concrete pedestrian/bike path in a landscaped corridor with the historic black pole, acorn lens light fixtures. The Bicycle-Pedestrian Advisory Commission has endorsed a plan to extend the path to both the east and west as surrounding properties develop in the area.


2. There are no driveways coming out on the spine road, and no houses facing it. Side roads lead to intimate neighborhood settings, each with its own green space.


3. There are sidewalks throughout the development. A mulched path leads from the spine road to Grove Ave., connecting to new sidewalks built by the developer on Grove and Marietta.


4. Besides the landscaped bikeway corridor, there are numerous small parks and green areas. Pine trees have been saved throughout the development, and natural vegetation has provided a base for plantings along Grove Ave.


5. The final development plan was reduced from 550 – 50-foot lots to 350 lots with varying lot widths.


6. Despite the new housing market decline, 50 lots have been sold and 23 are now under construction.


7. In addition to these features, the developer will be extending Grove Avenue from Minnesota Street to 11th Street. The developer is also constructing a sidewalk on Marietta Street, from Grove Avenue to SR60.

Good land planning is essential to maintain what has made Lake Wales special. Citizens are cordially invited to attend the Planning and Zoning meetings, which are held the last Tuesday of each month.