It wasn't exactly

a ringing endorsement, but Cypress Development Company's plan to add 60

homes on 127.5 acres to the Whitewater Creek community received a positive

recommendation from the county Planning Commission last week.

"I think

this barely meets the requirement of a PUD," said commission member

Bill Beckwith, who voted along with Fred Bowen and Al Gilbert to recommend

that the county Board of Commissioners approve the plan. Commissioners

will consider the rezoning request at their April 26 meeting, 7 p.m. at

the County Administrative Complex.

Planning commissioners

Jim Graw and Bob Harbison voted against the recommendation.

"They

just have not shown me what is different about this," said Graw,

adding that the PUD Planned Unit Development zoning category allows smaller

building lots in exchange for creativity in drawing those lots.

Graw said he

also had hoped to see the number of homes reduced to between 50 and 55.

When developers presented the plan last month, they were talking about

63 lots, and Graw told them he would like to see more variation in lot

sizes and fewer lots.

Harbison pointed

out that, as drawn, the plan still has more homes per acre than the land

use plan calls for in the area. And he, too, called for more creativity.

"I still see a subdivision like any other subdivision in the county,"

he said.

"We could

probably take this thing and nitpick it apart," said commissioner

Al Gilbert. "But there's something in me that, when I see quality,

I want to reach out and grab it."

"I think

the developers have done a credible job in trying to accommodate what

we suggested," added Beckwith.

Cypress and

its engineering firm, Integrated Science and Engineering, plan homes of

at least 3,200 square feet with fencing and architecture to match Whitewater

Creek, and common streets joining the new section to the old.

In presenting

the plan, Cypress representative Carl Westmoreland said the community

would have 16.84 acres of open green space, five times what is required.

There's also a 30-acre unbuildable flood plain.

In a recent

meeting, members of the Whitewater Creek Homeowners Association voted

to support the plan. "We feel like adding this 60 lots will just

enhance our neighborhood," said Margaret Suggs, president of the

association.

If the plan

is approved, residents of the new section will be members of the Whitewater

Creek Country Club and will be bound by the upscale subdivision's restrictive

covenants.

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