[Villages Kahuna]

Have we thought much about what the new apartments proposed by the Developer might look like? Consider the following...

In round numbers a 286-unit apartment building will almost certainly be larger than the independent living building at Freedom Pointe (the taller, larger building west of the Morse-El Camino Real traffic circle). Certainly it would have to be taller.

Freedom Pointe (FP) has 247 studio, one and two-bedroom apartments. The mix is towards the smaller units. None of the FP apartments has a balcony. The average size of the FP apartments is approximately 1,100 sq. ft. In addition, FP has a parking garage holding approximately 250 cars with similar space devoted to surface parking.

The FP residential building has a large dining room and roughly half of one floor devoted to resident amenities (reception desk, lobby, mail room, indoor pool, ballroom, workout facility, library, billiards, meeting rooms, wood shop, activities room, barber-beauty salon and offices). There is an enclosed grassy area with a gazebo and an outside enclosed dog park. The building has several elevator banks and a large receiving dock.

The Freedom Pointe building is four floors throughout with smaller parts being five, six and seven stories high.

The Villages-proposed apartments will almost certainly be larger than those at Freedom Pointe, more like the size of those of the Brownwood Lofts, estimated to average 1500-1700 sq.ft. They will also likely have balconies like the apartments at Brownwood. The additional size of the Hacienda Hills apartments will likely be offset by less space devoted to activities amenities such as at Freedom Pointe. The space devoted to the FP dining room and a new restaurant will be roughly equal.

It’s probably safe to say that given these assumptions, the proposed 286-unit apartment building on the former clubhouse-restaurant site would have to be 10-12 stories tall and require an underground parking facility to house a car and golf cart for each apartment. If the resort-style pool Is planned near the new apartments, that would require more space.

Will a building of that size fit on the parcel recently cleared of the Hacienda Hills clubhouse-restaurant-pool-putting green? That’s something for all of us to think about. If the Developer’s plans are for lower buildings, where would they go? How about the necessary surface parking?

Can that size project along with resort pool, nature trails and other amenities fit on the space recently cleared?

Or do the plans assume the closure of one of the Hacienda Hills nine hole courses? Was that discussed at the meeting yesterday?

The Developer was not obligated to share project plans with the AAC. All they were asking for was AAC approval of 300 new resident amenities cards. They own the property and can do whatever they choose with it.

The approval of the required zoning changes, impact studies, plan approval, etc. is for the county board to consider. All that’s certain is that we’ll be living with the result.