The Lady Lake Planning and Zoning Board is recommending a plan for nearly 300 new homes at Water Oak be tabled for a month.
The recommendation for tabling will be forwarded to the Lady Lake Commission, which is scheduled to hear the request from Sun Communities, owner of Water Oak, a 55-plus community of manufactured homes off U.S. Hwy. 27/441 in Lady Lake, on June 4.
Planning and Zoning Board member William Sigurdson suggested tabling the matter after hearing from Water Oakers and homeowners in the area who voiced concerns about traffic, wastewater treatment fees, drainage and a spray field. His recommendation was approved unanimously. Water Oak currently has about 1,100 occupied homes.
Water Oak resident Ron Auger called the looming traffic problem “the perfect storm.”
He noted that the upcoming widening of U.S. Hwy. 27/441 will mean that the Water Oak gate will be re-located. During the time of construction, even more traffic will be heading toward Griffin Avenue. He said Griffin Avenue already is overburdened.
Donna Morris, who has lived on property off Griffin Avenue since 1960, said vehicles continually run through her fence line.
“There have been deaths on that road. The road is dangerous,” she said.
Physician Mahrad Paymani, who lives at a home at nearby Madera Court, said he is concerned about Sun Communities’ plan to build homes on a spray field.
“We now are going to put people on the land and we don’t what chemicals are beneath it. This does not look good,” he said.
His neighbor, Darrell Johnson, was more direct.
“You are going to build houses on top of a spray field? You people are nuts,” he said.
Lady Lake Commissioner Dan Vincent, a resident of Water Oak, said the project was moving too fast. He said there are too many unknowns and that Sun Communities needs to do a better job of communicating with residents about what is being planned.
The Planning & Zoning Board acts in an advisory capacity. The Lady Lake Commission is not bound by its recommendation.
