After 12 years of stops and starts, D.R. Horton has taken firm steps to begin developing the former Baymeadows Golf Club.
In 2005, Horton purchased 113 acres that comprised the now-defunct golf course with original plans to build 1,200 condominiums, 200 single-family homes and an unspecified amount of commercial space on the property off Baymeadows Road near Interstate 95.
On Oct. 6, Horton received mobility fee calculation certificates from the city for 200 townhomes to be built on 21.85 acres and 88 single-family homes on 26.67 acres. Those fees are calculated at $119,356 for the townhomes and $170,410 for the single-family units.
The mobility fee certificate is one of the first steps toward developing land. The fee calculation is valid for one year from its issue date. On Wednesday, a survey crew was on-site at the location of the townhomes.
According to documents on file with the city, the townhomes, currently named Baymeadows Townhomes, would be built on what were two pairs of parallel fairways off Baymeadows Circle East north of Paseo Drive South.
The single-family homes are planned for the former practice range with the street cutting through the center of the site that once included a single golf hole. That street will connect Baymeadows Circle West and Baymeadows Circle East.
Called Pine Terrace at the Meadows, the single-family site has an average density of three lots per acre with homesites averaging 40 feet by 120 feet, or 4,800 square feet.
After Horton purchased the property and began pursuit of its original plan, nearby homeowners stood in opposition because of traffic concerns and the loss of the golf course community feel. Horton had agreed in 2005 to pay $7.1 million to mitigate traffic volume increases associated with the original project. The plan was approved by City Council but was vetoed by then-Mayor John Peyton, citing congestion concerns on Baymeadows Road.
The current, significantly lower mobility fee for partial development of the property is the result of a 2011 change in fee calculations.
The mobility fee now represents cost per vehicle mile traveled multiplied by the average vehicle mile traveled in the applicable development area, then multiplied by average daily vehicle trips. Average trips are determined by national traffic engineering standards for development size and type, and can be adjusted based on location and design factors that can reduce trips generated by the development. Those include a mix of uses, multimodal options and more.
An updated master plan in 2014 reduced the number of residential units to 697 combined single- and multifamily.
That 2014 plan also called for razing a Bank of America branch near the intersection of Baymeadows Road and Baymeadows Circle West to realign the entrance to the neighborhood. A conflict between whether the state would be responsible for that cost — Baymeadows is a state road — or a combination of the developer and the city in large part doomed that proposal.
Neither the single-family nor townhome project has begun the review process with the city. Officials with D.R. Horton did not respond to requests for comment.