Longtime Florida builder GL Homes is moving forward with its first foray into the City of Westlake. A presentation on the development was made to the Westlake City Council at a meeting on Tuesday, June 3.
The development, tentatively called Silver Lake, is south of Persimmon Blvd. and east of The Estates in the southeastern portion of the community.
Eventually, the development will have 448 single-family homes on 119.8 acres.
Donaldson Hearing of the planning firm Cotleur & Hearing, representing GL, presented the plat application for Phase 1 of the project, which envisions 294 homes with 40-foot and 50-foot street fronts and one-story and two-story designs unique to Westlake.
“GL is excited about being here,” Hearing said.
While not describing it as a partnership, Hearing said GL and the city’s primary developer and landowner, Minto Communities USA, are “cut from the same cloth” and have worked together to shape the project.
GL and Minto have a “long-standing relationship,” Hearing said. “They worked together to configure the site, so it is more consistent with the neighborhoods and communities we have within Westlake.”
The development will have water on three sides, a 3,000-square-foot amenities center and a “diversity of lot types,” he said. There will be a wide single entranceway off Persimmon featuring a sign with a waterfall motif, a multi-modal path, a covered school bus stop and a contemporary guard house with stone columns and “clean lines — very, very crisp.”
“GL does an amazing job with landscaping and entryways,” said Hearing, who also often represents Minto before the council.
The development will not trigger the requirement for Persimmon to be expanded from two lanes to four lanes, Hearing said. However, GL will be installing a right-turn lane.
Councilman Gary Werner expressed concern that the development plans for only one entrance/exit, plus an emergency entrance, also off Persimmon, for police and fire-rescue vehicles.
Hearing assured the council members that the plat met all necessary requirements and had been approved by Palm Beach County Fire-Rescue.
“That doesn’t give me much comfort… and doesn’t necessarily make it acceptable,” Werner said. “The question I would ask, were I to buy there, is, do I have an emergency way out were some catastrophic accident to occur?”
Werner said this week he checked, and PBCFR officials confirmed that the development is within code.
Still, “in my experience, that’s a lot of houses with only one point of access,” said Werner, a longtime professional municipal planner.
In the end, the plat was approved 5-0. Councils cannot reject a plat request if it meets all state, county and municipal criteria.
The Silver Lake land is the only property GL owns in Westlake. However, the developer has permits to build 3,897 homes, 300,000 square feet of commercial space and 50,000 square feet of office space on the 4,871 acres it owns northwest of Westlake in the far western reaches of the Indian Trail Improvement District.
In other business:
- City Manager Kenneth Cassel reported that he is working to hire another Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office deputy for traffic enforcement, and another for general duties. Westlake contracts with the PBSO for law enforcement.
At the same time, Cassel, who also manages the Seminole Improvement District, said SID plans to hire a full-time deputy to enforce trespass laws on district swales, lakes and waterside property. SID supplies most of the infrastructure in Westlake.
The PBSO currently supplies two patrol officers and a sergeant for each of three daily shifts for a total of 10 deputies assigned to Westlake.
Cassel said this week that the plan to hire additional law enforcement personnel does not reflect an increase in serious crime, but “people are speeding all over the place… [and] there are others who have no respect for SID’s property or that of our residents. They’re running ATVs where they shouldn’t be, and some are skiing on the lakes in violation of the law. The lakes are SID’s property and responsibility. A lot of these people are not even Westlake residents.”
A number of residents have complained to the city about people using the lake banks behind their houses for fishing. Cassel said hiring a 40-hour-a-week deputy specifically to oversee SID’s property is an effort to curtail such practices.
- The council appointed Dr. Christopher Tompkins to Westlake’s Education Advisory Board.
Tompkins is a retired U.S. Army senior lieutenant colonel with a doctorate in educational policy leadership and management, a master’s degree in philosophy of education and a bachelor’s degree in business economics. He served in Iraq and Afghanistan and is a recipient of the Bronze Star.
Most recently, Tompkins was a professor of military science and director of military affairs at Palm Beach Atlantic University.
Though Tompkins moved to Westlake only within the last six months, he said he’s eager to “get involved and help the community.”
Vice Mayor Greg Langowski, who serves as the council’s liaison to the EAB, supported the appointment.
“He’s got a great résumé. I’d love to have him working on the board with me,” Langowski said.
The council approved the appointment unanimously.
How large are the largest lots going to be and are five foot fences going to be allowed? Here in the Woodlands, there were three half acre lots that went very fast and I would have loved to have had one so I could have had room for a pool and enough room for my Irish setters to still enjoy a large yard. Instead I gave the entire yard to the dogs, and I’m living without a pool. Just curious if there will be any such large lots like this available in this new Silver Lake GL community on lakefront property?