Parrish Lakes would bring 3,300 homes to North River area

MANATEE -- Parrish Lakes, potentially the granddaddy in size of all development in Manatee County's North River area, may be waking up after a long sleep.

Parrish Lakes would bring 3,300 homes, 400,000 square-feet of retail and office space, and a mixed-use residential town center to be built over 20 years, according to documents filed with Manatee County Building and Development Services.

Florida Land Management of Brandon is proposing to build the development on 1,155 acres south of Moccasin Wallow Road, north of Erie Road and adjacent to the planned Robinson Gateway project.

Robinson Gateway, planned for 288 acres along Interstate 75, is substantial in its own right, heavier on commercial and retail development

than Parrish Lakes, with its 900,000 square feet of retail space, 600,000 square feet of office space, a movie theater and hundreds of hotel rooms, plus 542 residential units.

All of that development, plus thousands of other homes planned along the Moccasin Wallow Road and Buckeye Road areas, will have an enormous affect on everything from traffic to schools and sanitary sewer.

Parrish Lakes is so large that it is a development of regional impact.

Manatee County staff have until May 20 to complete their comments on a proposed local development agreement setting out the details of required transportation mitigation and timing.

By phase two of the project in 2030, the North River road network, now largely served by two-lane roads, will look quite different.

Examples include construction of four-lane divided intersections for County Road 675 from U.S. 301 to State Road 64, and from Erie Road to U.S. 301; and Old Tampa Road from Chin Road to Fort Hamer Road, according to a report prepared under the Florida Land and Water Management Act.

The development plan specifies that the developer shall enter into a voluntary housing-mitigation program, and may provide up to 330 units that qualify as affordable or workforce housing.

By completion of the first phase of the project in 2020, 900 single family units and 600 multifamily units would have been constructed, along with 250,000 square feet of retail. The remainder would be constructed by 2030, assuming the developer is able to secure all the permits it needs.

Parrish Lakes would also add 925 students to Manatee County schools by build-out in 2030, according to the DRI report.

Parrish Lakes, which dates to as far back as 2009, is one of many development projects put on hold by the Great Recession, according to Manatee County staff.

Calls to Claude Melli, president of FLM Inc., were not immediately returned on Wednesday or Thursday.

James A. Jones Jr., East Manatee reporter, can be contacted at 941-745-7053 or on Twitter @jajones1.

This story was originally published May 8, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Parrish Lakes would bring 3,300 homes to North River area ."