The Leesburg Planning Commission voted Dec. 19 to recommend approval of the Silver Springs annexation and planned unit development, a proposal to convert roughly 337 acres into an estate-residential PUD that would allow about 825 detached single-family homes.

Planning staff described the request (LSCP24345 and PUD24346) as an annexation, comprehensive plan amendment and rezoning from Lake County designations to City of Leesburg estate residential and PUD zoning. Staff noted wetlands and floodplain in the northwest corner of the property, school concurrency requirements, lot-size mixes (479 fifty-foot lots, 284 sixty-foot lots, 45 seventy-foot lots and larger one-acre lots adjacent to Number 2 Road), a 35% open-space requirement, 25-foot landscape buffer along property boundaries and a 48-month phasing clause that would revert entitlements if the developer did not substantially commence.

Applicant Tara Tedrow and planner Max Van Allen presented map exhibits and said the proposal responded to neighborhood input by reducing unit counts and adding larger perimeter lots and a 100-foot buffer along Number 2 Road to preserve mature trees. Commissioners asked about access dependencies on the adjoining Whispering Hills development; Tara said the project anticipates primary access by boulevard to US 27 and that, where necessary, the applicant may be responsible for improvements if Whispering Hills does not build the connecting roadway.

A motion to approve each request was made, seconded, and carried by roll call; the planning commission's recommendation will proceed to the City Commission for final readings.