Around a dozen Midway Citizens stood up at the Tuesday Midway City Council meeting to voice opinions on requested amendments to the Homestead Resort Master Plan.
The Homestead Resort may soon have a new owner in Watts Enterprises, but the local developers are hoping for some changes to the resorts 2008 Master Plan before closing the deal. A slight minority of Midway City Residents providing public comment at the April 23 meeting said they had no problems with the amended Master Plan at all, and even the majority of those who spoke against some portion of the master plan update qualified their statements by saying they hope that the plan to revitalize the Homestead is successful. Regardless concerns were raised during the one hour of public comment. Ken Ross the HOA board president for The Links neighborhood says that they’ve met with company president Russ Watts three times, but they still have some concerns especially regarding some high-density units located across from one of their neighborhoods.
“The only solution he had to the problem with the view is to move the units back 10 additional feet. That doesn't really solve the problem of the view. We do have a number of issues that have already been raised about the noise, and the lights, the parties. I think that’s just so crowded with those villas. You can see the pictures of them and how close they are together. Maybe there's a way that break them up, to move the estate homes, I mean even moving the bungalows for example down where we've got the villa homes. Anyway, there are a number of ideas that I think and I want to propose to Russ that he meet with our Saint Andrews residents who are directly affected by this. See if we can come up with some really solid ideas that are acceptable to you and acceptable to our residents. We’d be very appreciative of it. We’re trying to be cooperative neighbors, but we also don't want to have a huge negative impact on our development that's going to affect all the 56 homes that are there, as well as just those in Saint Andrews.”
Ross’s concerns about late night tourists, and the noise and light pollution they bring, were echoed by a few in attendance. Additionally, the 2008 Master Plan called for a parking lot that would be just north of homes located on St. Andrews Drive in Midway. The amended Masterplan would place some higher density units along the back instead. Midway resident Teddy Bryan expressed her frustration with the proposed amendments to the Master Plan.
“We knew that something would be happening at the Homestead when we bought our house three years ago and we did. We looked at the plans and there was a big parking lot, we could live with that. We have no—this is the worst scenario that we could even dream in a dream. That I would be sitting on my patio and 40 feet for my back door I be staring at this huge, big edifice with balconies, with people looking down, with no privacy at all.”
Bryan suggested that the resorts high density buildings be located on the north end of the development near housing on Pinehurst drive. Midway City Council invited Watts to meet with residents of the area again and work out a solution. Brent Haight brought up another concern to the council about subcontractors traveling through neighborhoods.
“There’s a lot of little kids in the neighborhood and it terrifies us because when you go on Rainbow Lane there's a gate. So, we've got cement trucks they get up there and they have to somehow turn around and then drive back out of the neighborhood. It happens every single day. We put up signs to warn them and they still come through. So, we just want some help for that to be planned to mitigate the access there or somehow control the access, so those construction vehicles aren't coming into our neighborhood. This is really a tight knit neighborhood and we absolutely love our people on Saint Andrews drive. It would be a travesty to lose any of our good friends and our neighbors. So, I hope that's taken into consideration so that can be resolved.”
The Midway City Council decided to schedule more discussion within the council the issue for an on-site work meeting Friday May 3rd at 9:00 am. The item will return to the agenda to the Midway City Council meeting on May 6th.
