| MandoMan |
08-14-2020 07:56 AM |
1 Attachment(s)
Quote:
Originally Posted by Villages Kahuna
(Post 1816728)
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.
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While you are probably right about all of this, I think there would be a good market for much smaller units, as in the plans below. A lot of courtyard and patio homes are already 1100 to 1200 square feet. A lot of people living alone don’t need anywhere near that much. Tiny Houses are very popular these days and hard to find. If people look at their lives and realize that they already live in an 1100 to 1500 sq. ft. house, but no one ever visits, or perhaps one or two people on occasion, then a place a third that size has plenty of room for a couch and armchair, a small table, a properly-sized bed (if you live alone, you don’t need a king-size bed—a single bed leaves much more space in the bedroom.). Shelves in a closet can be much more efficient than a chest of drawers. I have rooms that are essentially closed off. I rarely go into them. People living alone or couples may not really need both a living room and a family room, or a formal dining room instead of a breakfast nook.
In a lot of Manhattan apartments, there is only a minimal kitchen, often with a half-height refrigerator. That’s not to my taste, but the understanding is that in New York, a lot of people grab coffee on their way to work, eat something from a food cart for lunch, and eat dinner in a restaurant. Many people rarely cook. There are probably people in The Villages who also rarely cook. Perhaps they would be quite happy with a kitchenette. Also, in Manhattan, a lot of bedrooms are only 10x10, and a lot of apartments are only 350 square feet, even some selling for close to a million.
There are snowbirds who come south for five months of golf, but don’t bring much with them. They may have only a couple suitcases. They don’t need an extra room for their hobbies or for an office. They don’t need 1200 square feet and yard work to pay for all year. If they don’t have relatives or friends coming down for a few weeks, why do they need two bedrooms?
I think that making a sizable percentage of these new apartments tiny would be a good move. |
