The developers idea of progress is not necessarily the same as people who live near there.

I dont have a problem with apartments what i do have a problem with is taking prime parking spaces.

An area may be zoned for a particular use. When that use or business is no longer there, an entity may request a zone change because they want to use the space differently. This allows the county over sight as to how vacant spaces are used. I used to be on a planning board and, although I do not know the specific rules of this particular county, asking for a zoning change is not unusual, nor are the people making the decisions”dirty.” This application seems sensible to me, all except the one about reserving street space for parking. Perhaps this overreach is a bargaining chip on the developer's part as in, “okay, I will give up the street parking if you approve this.”

Good points but does anyone really think they will stop at 7? This is only the beginning

So what? Unless you want to invest in commercial space in SS, should you (and I mean the proverbial you, not YOU personally) have a say in how someone else (The Developer, who develops) uses their capital?

Spanish Springs, like the other squares, is NOT an amenity.

The Lofts have apparently been a success and the people living there aren't causing any problems for homeowners. Businesses make decisions on products and services. That's why there is a new BJ's club just down the road from Sam's Club. DId the area really NEED a new buying club, or do choices make people's lives better?

Are 14 parking spaces really going to be the demise of Spanish Springs?

If more people supported the businesses that are there, there wouldn't be enough vacant space to build apartments.

And as someone from NYC, this can't be your first exposure to mixed-use building. Look around next time you go back north.

If you do this in Florida...you can be arrested. New law just this week.

Agree, except that I would add I have a very big problem with giving out additional amenity rights in a mature area with already overused amenities. However, that’s not on the Lady Lake officials, that’s where the AAC seriously dropped the ball.

Taxes is absolutely a town's skin. The Square is the main attraction to this part of Lady Lake, one of the main reasons people choose to live here, as opposed to (for instance) Water Oak or Del Webb. The square also has several health care offices. If those are all boarded up, the paid entertainers will have one less place to play, the employees will have to find other jobs possibly further from home, which might convince them to simply move closer to their new jobs. There would be fewer people moving in, because there's no "anchor" to attract them to this location as opposed to any other location.

Fewer people living here, fewer businesses being here, equals fewer taxes. The Developer is already paying tax on that building, there will be no more property taxes coming from tenants renting the apartments. So the town might have 14 more residents, but 0 more taxes paid.

That's skin.

7 or 14 apts is not the finale. This is just the tip of the iceberg. What would a couple of hundred apts mean for SS?

BTW our village sales rep did call the squares an amenity.

It is amazing to me that when the developer loses some thing they always manage to finesse their way around it and get what they want.

No problems with finesse, that’s how it’s supposed to work. The problem is that when finesse doesn’t work, the next step is bullying.

Because Spanish Springs is governed by Lady Lake. It is served by the LL police and fire departments and subject to LL zoning and other town regulations.

Filing a criminal complaint against two new Sumter County commissioners that will probably land them in the state prison isn’t exactly a “finesse” move. That’s more brutal politics than I’ve ever seen.

Yes, Spanish Springs is not an amenity, but LSL and Brownwood squares are owned by a CDD and all the CDD's south of 466 pay for the maintenance like the windmill.

The Lofts of Brownwood were not that much of a success or the developer would not have cancelled plans for building the Lofts of Richmond.

14 Parking spots on the square is problematic because the streets are public. To those who say the streets are owned by the developer then why would he need permission from LL to reserve them?

I've posted this before and I'll do it again. Community development agencies have done a lot or research into revitalizing down towns in cities and have found that to bring life back to downtown areas you need residents living there. I saw that happen in Nashville, TN when I was working downtown. A developer built a high rise apartment building right on the edge of downtown. Prior to this the majority of businesses there were restaurants and a few small shops that catered to the office workers with a lot of boarded up buildings. After the apartment building was built and occupied, a grocery store opened just a couple block from the apartments. Other businesses opened to cater to the apartment residents. In the downtown entertainment area new businesses opened and existing ones expanded their operations. In the last 8 or so years a lot of new apartment and condo buildings have been built and prior to the covid debacle the downtown scene in Nashville was booming. Without those apartment residents downtown, Nashville would still be a ghost town after 6:00 PM. If you haven't figured it out yet, maybe apartments will revitalize and save SS.

Question for all the community development experts, what are your ideas for the improvement of SS? Please don't even mention Katie Belles, that is a dead horse that has been beaten into a bloody pulp that will not be like the Phoenix and rise from the ashes. It was a failed business plan, get over it.

The office spaces on the second floor of these buildings are setting vacant and producing no revenue yet the owner has to pay property taxes and maintenance. What successful business allows potential revenue generating property to set idle and be a drain on corporate revenue? I'll help out here for those that don't have critical thinking skills, none that are operating in the black.