Lakeside, an apartment complex being proposed for the east shore of Graham Dairy Lake, is The Graham Companies’ latest project.
Fourteen buildings with 541 units will rise in Business Park West, with an entrance at Commerce Way between Northwest 146th and Northwest 148th Streets.
In addition to water views, amenities will include a clubhouse and resort-style pool, a fitness center, work-from-home office spaces and a dog park.
Two shopping centers are in walking distance from the property.
Plans include 222 one-bedroom, one bath apartments; 244 two bedroom, and two bath units and 75 three-bedroom residences with three baths.
On the 22 acres where cattle currently graze, the developers plan to plant 817 trees.
As designed by the company’s longtime architects, Roger Fry & Associates, buildings will have tile roofs and will be of varying heights. Those along Commerce Way will be three stories and will rise close to the street. There will be two buildings with five stories and the rest will have four floors.
The company’s 2017 plan for a Senior Village that included a building donated to the town for a community center was canceled when a health care partner could not be found.
With the Lakeside site application, The Graham Companies has pledged to contribute $1,280,000 to the municipality for the town to build a senior center elsewhere in Miami Lakes.
Luis Martinez, senior executive vice president of The Graham Companies and president of its Residential division, presented the project to the Planning & Zoning Board on Feb. 10.
The company seeks to change a Future Land Use Map for three of the four parcels in the project; to rezone from industrial office to medium density residential, and to zone all four parcels to medium density, with 30 units per acre.
The site plan will be considered in future hearings. Citing residents’ complaints about notice for the hearing, the board deferred the application until its March 10 meeting. The project was scheduled to be presented to the town council on Feb. 17.
“As a company, we’re proud of the contributions that we make to our town and continue to support improvements to our community,” Martinez told the board. “Now we must move forward on a different path: The two paths available to us today are Live Local or the applications before you today.”
Under the state’s Live Local law and current zoning, the developer could build up to 978 apartments, nearly double what it is proposing. The law also allows builders to pay less in property taxes.
The current plan of 541 apartments, if not built with a Live Local formula, would generate an estimated $265,169 in annual property taxes to Miami Lakes, Martinez said.
Live Local would also allow the company to reduce or waive payment of impact fees, he said.
The current plan could generate estimated impact fees of $5,432,605: $2.9 million for mobility (wear and tear on roads); $657,840 for police and fire; $1.5 million for parks and $331,000 for schools.
“As responsible developers we are not huge fans of Live Local,” Martinez told the board.
He said he and his wife Beth Graham Martinez live near the project, and three of their adult children and their families reside in town, too.
“What’s good for Miami Lakes is generally good for The Graham Companies, and what’s good for the Graham Companies is generally good for Miami Lakes,” Martinez said. “We are very conscientious about what we do.”