Small Lot Size-Homes Still Battle Stigmas

SEBRING - Two houses along W. L. Kirkland Street in Avon Park sit in an otherwise vacant, large field near Lake Anoka, on the site of an unfinished development.

Nearby, resident Jim Windsor believes the problem lies right between the two, or rather, there isn't enough space between the houses.

"You put too many homes so close like that you're going to create a ghetto," Windsor feared. "That's not going to make it good for anybody, the town or the neighbors."

In the unnamed W. L. Kirkland Street development and other affordable housing projects in Highlands County, developers in Highlands County have been using small lots to create them, and in the process had to battle conceptions that they could become slums later on.

The biggest worry Windsor had was over where the cars would go. The single-family homes had one garage and the driveway leading to them, but he expected some of the families to need more space than that.

"They're going to want to expand their driveway," he predicted as he saw the space between the models. After the air-conditioning units, there was about 15 feet between the houses, barely large enough for a single sedan to sit on both properties. "Where can they go?"

Scott Chapman of Lake Placid-based Chapman Construction, building the development for Kirkland Developers Inc., said he had not heard many complaints about the development since the planning began. He was aware of the perception such housing had, but argued the houses would be better than those surrounding it once it was done. Kirkland Developers could not be reached for comment.

"I'm sure you got some complainers," he said. "It's not a downgrade to the community.... This is top-quality construction."

A similar concern came up in Sebring for the 150-unit Las Villas at Kenilworth. To allay the city council's concerns, Caribbean Real Estate set it up so that only the homeowner can live inside the duplex he or she owns, forbidding rentals.

"They're (Caribbean's) providing amenities and some things that would hopefully maintain the value of the area," Sebring Councilwoman Margie Rhoades said Monday.

Chapman said there is no such restriction for the development on W. L. Kirkland Street.

Linda Conrad, the Highlands County Zoning Supervisor, said the county has permitted several dense developments in zones called Flexible Urban Developments, or FUDs. Three small-scale FUDs have been approved this year, the largest of them in the Spring Lake area.

She added that FUDs and other dense developments do not always go downhill, pointing to Tomoka Heights and Highlands Ridge. Both are retirement communities.