By Alan Johnson, EDC vice chair
EDC members met April 27 at City Hall.
Running Pony will begin shooting footage for the Lakeland promotional video at the Tour de Lakeland May 13.
The Tour de Lakeland and Lakeland Spring Festival is on track and has received a lot of local sponsorship and support.
Lakeland Middle Preparatory School ahead of schedule.
The McDonalds sign (on Canada Road) is coming down and McDonalds will build a new location on U. S. Highway 64. The construction start is scheduled for May and estimated to be finished by September.
Residential developments off Chambers Chapel Road is moving along on schedule. Residential inventory is very low. New residential housing is currently very much needed.
Link to a construction progress report provided by Tom Skehan, city planning director.
https://www.lakelandtn.gov/DocumentCenter/View/6210
The MPC (Municipal Planning Commission) reviewed the Small Area Plan and would like to submit formal notes/recommendations after their next meeting. The EDC will review their notes and recommendations and put together a formal recommendation to the BOC (Board of Commissioners) at their next meeting.
The two outlying topics of conversation continue to be the current recommendation regarding the roads and vision for the northwest quadrant. This quadrant is currently owned by John Hyneman Development Co. The Hynemans should be presenting ideas for the development before next month’s meeting. Their ideas may or may not lead to slight revisions to the Small Area Plan.
Discussions continue regarding the narrowing of roads and bump-out parking on busy roads in the plan. These roads feed most of the residential developments in Lakeland and frequently have school buses and heavy equipment travel on them. There would also be a significant expense incurred to reconstruct the roadways. Options for the roads strategy are being considered.
Discussions continue regarding a new microsite that will display site-ready areas for development.
Preliminary discussions were started about the prospect of making sewer available to other strategic areas in Lakeland. Dexter Muller, development consultant for the City, is pulling together information and previous studies for considerations.
