Plans for a 407-home subdivision called Gates of Winfield were firmly closed down following action by the Winfield Town Council.
The Town Council, at its meeting earlier this week, agreed with the unfavorable recommendation made last month by the Plan Commission and unanimously turned down a request from LBL Development, LLC development manager Steve Kil.
Town Council President Zack Beaver told Kil he watched online the March 19 Plan Commission meeting and noticed “quite a few deficiencies” in his presentation.
Kil, when asked if he had any more information to relate in regard to the project or if his team planned to address issues brought up at the Plan Commission, responded: “We’re proceeding as is.”
The plan commission on March 19, during a public hearing that lasted nearly an hour and drew a standing room only crowd, unanimously voted against a zone change request from Kil.
The property sparked controversy in mid-January, following State Sen. Rick Niemeyer’s Jan. 8 proposed but never presented bill seeking to disannex a portion of the land located in the town of Winfield.
Winfield officials at the time posted a message on the town’s Facebook page challenging it and asking residents to contact Niemeyer’s office to voice their concerns.
The public hearing, at Kil’s request, included a zone change from agriculture to planned development for mixed use for 400 acres in the southwest portion of Winfield, roughly south of 121st Avenue, west of Gibson Street and southwest of the new Taft Middle School.
Plans, as presented at the March 19 meeting, included 407 residential lots to be located on 129th Avenue and an unspecified number of industrial lots off of 121st Avenue.
Kil told planners he wanted to proceed with the proposed Gates of Winfield, seeking a zone change request only, then a primary plat approval later, with engineering costs playing a major part.
Plan Commission President Jon Derwinski, who read from a three-page response at the March 19 meeting, said plans as presented by Kil were “incomplete, unclear and demonstrate a concerning disregard for the town’s established codes and public processes.”
Several residents at the March 19 meeting also voiced opposition to the planned project.
In other business, Todd Kleven, who serves as director of land acquisition for Lennar Corp., asked the Town Council to table for now his request for a zone change and primary plat approval for a 146-lot subdivision to be named Heron Landing.
Kleven, who apologized before addressing the council, said his parent company had made some changes, including discontinuing the Landmark series of homes, which had been part of the Heron Landing plans.
“Lennar is overhauling all its products,” Kleven said.
He said that will mean changes in the homes in his proposal, and Kleven asked that his application be returned to the Plan Commission, possibly at a special meeting to be set for a future date.
The Plan Commission had previously given the project the go-ahead for the development planned at the northwest corner of 117th Avenue and Gibson Street on 81 acres.
Additionally, the town’s Redevelopment Commission approved the adoption of a $4.25 million bond.
Most of the bond will go toward the purchase of 120 acres of farmland that will be turned into what officials are calling a “generational central park.”
The purchase agreement, which will be made in three phases, sets the price per acre at $30,000, town officials said.
The 120 acres, which is currently being used for farmland, is located approximately east of Benton Street and north of 117th Avenue.
Deborah Laverty is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
