The proposed $150 million-plus Lakeland Park mixed-use project returned to the suburb’s Board of Commissioners on Thursday, Dec. 3, for more suggestions on its sketch plan.

Developer Keith Grant of Grant & Co. is now involved in the project at Canada Road and Davies Plantation Road. Landowner John Hyneman requested Grant’s expertise several months ago.

“We had a little input in the last version that you saw but more so in the latest version that you’re looking at tonight,” said Grant, who last developed a project in Lakeland about 15 years ago with the Sterling Place 55-and-older community.

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The newest revised plans for the nearly 100-acre Lakeland Park include 21 fewer lots (151 single-family residential lots including 39 age-targeted cottages); a three-story senior living facility; a variety of commercial outparcels that likely will include restaurants, retail, a potential hotel, and a gas station; as well as walking trails, ponds, and tree preservation areas.

When the last sketch plan was discussed, one suggestion from the Board of Commissioners was to include a better mix of lot types. There are many different residential zoning parts of the plan, Grant said.

The majority of the homes will feature front porches.

“It’s something that we’ve gone to and we feel creates a sense of community,” Grant said. “The Mid-South doesn’t have a lot of that around here. You see it in the older communities … but you haven’t seen it in new construction in probably 30 years or so.”

The Lake District lights iconic sign in Lakeland

Grant noted that his company actually had the property under contract in the late 2000s.

“The problem that we saw then, which is also true today, is the terrain,” he said, noting a steep topography drop-off of 52 feet.

Commissioner Jim Atkinson, who was critical of the first draft, addressed what he would accept to get the project moving forward.

“Even though it’s a planned development, I want to make it match the development regulations,” he said. Atkinson thought the early version of the plans violated the city’s standards by including only one lot type instead of at least three, and he wanted a better flow between the commercial and residential.

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“It just seems like we can’t get this plan moving. We’ve been trying so long,” a frustrated Hyneman said. He told the board that potential tenants are getting discouraged also. “We thought this was a great plan. We thought (it) addressed your issues from last month.”

Commissioner Richard Gonzales said he feels the plans are 90% where they need to be.

“I don’t think we need to jeopardize an opportunity here because it’s not walkable,” he said. “Everything we do here can’t look like a quaint town in East Tennessee.”

Mayor Mike Cunningham said the property is right at the center of Lakeland’s commercial corridor, and therefore does not need to be designed like it is fitting into a series of neighborhoods.

“If we don’t take an opportunity and we lose a development, we’ll be the ones that’ll be looked back on 10 years from now as those who nitpicked their way out of having something great,” he said.

He pointed out that money generated by the Lakeland Park development could help to pay for a new elementary school once it is needed, considering there are more than 1,000 new homes already in the development pipeline for Lakeland.

Atkinson describes Lakeland as hungry for retail but not desperate.

“What I’d never want anybody to take away from this board is that we’re going to lower our standards to try to get something in just because we need the retail,” he said. “I don’t think that what’s happening here. I think you have a great project here, and I think we’re working on the finer tweaks to comply with our minimum standards.”

The next step for the developers could be to bring an outline plan before the Lakeland Municipal Planning Commission.