EDGEWATER -- Council members will learn about developers' plans for the city's first large-scale residential project west of Interstate 95 at their next meeting.They will go over the pioneer development with city staff and developers from Mercedes Homes at a workshop in the Community Center, 102 N. Riverside Drive, at 7 p.m. Monday.
"It's an opportunity for us to give a preview of the planned development," said Kenneth Mitchell, corporate land division president of Mercedes Homes. "It's also an opportunity for us to talk about the character of the property itself, the drainage and the wetlands,"
The roughly 877-acre property, known as McCaskill Ranch, will be called Reflections.
Situated at the southwest corner of I-95 and State Road 442, it is proposed for about 1,000 to 1,700 townhouses and single-family homes.
About 4 miles of walking trails are planned, and there will be commercial sites available for a variety of businesses such as coffee shops, dry cleaners and small drug stores.
The community will offer a combination of lot sizes suitable for everyone from the "older empty nesters" to younger couples with children. Minimum lot sizes for single-family homes will be about 55 feet wide and the first phase of homes will be built on 75-foot wide lots, Mitchell said.
Significant wetlands will be preserved and, if there were any modification to the plans, only the low quality wetlands would be filled, he said. "We are currently working with the water management district and the engineers."
The meeting will address the environmental character of the property that has had a lot of misconceptions, Mitchell said. "Property to the north and south are both exceptionally wet, but out property has a lot more high and dry land involved."
The current Volusia County land use is about 8 to 12 units to the acre of density and Mitchell said they will request a variety of densities so that the density is in the right places to preserve some of the quality aspects of the natural environment.
By the end of the year, City Manager Ken Hooper said he expects the infrastructure for water, sewer and roads to be ready and about 100 homes could be under construction.
Mitchell, who has been with the company for four years, said Mercedes Homes is building a similar community in Satellite Beach with 50-foot wide lots for single family homes, 22-foot wide lots for townhouses, and four to seven story condominiums.
So far, he said the community has been pleased with the construction of the subdivision.
"We're looking forward to having the meeting because we are very proud of the project we are bringing to Edgewater and it's going to be very unique," Mitchell said.
Mercedes Homes, with headquarters in Melbourne, has been in business for more than 20 years in Florida and is the 17th largest builder in the country.
kelly.cuculiansky@news-jrnl.com
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