Lennar Homes Community Meeting

Held in the auditorium May 16th, 2022- Just the facts

Last night there were about 45 people in attendance at the Lennar Homes community meeting. This meeting was put on by the builder and not by the city. This meeting was led by Kevin Sturgill, vice president of land for Lennar, Randy Mickle, division president for Lennar, and Dwight Kiser, chief landscape architect for Kiser and Vogrin Design. Mr. Sturgill led the meeting and opened it with allowing Kiser to speak to the design of the proposed project before he addressed the concerns of the citizens such as traffic, number of homes, type of homes, price, flooding, and land use.

Kiser went through some of the history of this project. Again, this is the land on New Hall just south of Webster Road. In 2007 this was to be a golf course with homes. In 2017 Walton group purchased the property and it was to be a PUD. (planned urban development) As a PUD it would have had town homes and multifamily units. The Walton group sat on the property and the zoning lapsed. It reverted back to R20. RS20 (low-medium density residential, requiring a minimum 20,000 square foot lot and intended for single-family dwellings) The plan does not include any building on Mill Branch Creek. The creek is under the control of TDEC. (Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation) There will be storm water control and water retention built on site, but those items are not in the current design. Five types of “products” make up this development. 55+ housing makes up the north of the property, alley access houses along the main access road, large homes in the 2500-3500 square footage range, single story homes and two story homes. There are three acres of “amenities” including a pool, walking trails, a clubhouse, and several playgrounds. In total, this plan includes 958 homes on 412 acres which comes out to 2.32/acre which is under the allowed number in an SRPUD. (Suburban Residential Planned Unit Development) However, 42% is left for green space. The actual density of lots is closer to 10 homes per acre. The biggest difference from Walton’s plan to this one is that under SRPUD, only single family homes are allowed in the development.

The question was asked if they are in a joint venture with Walton. Sturgill stated that Lennar may develop with Walton, but are not in a joint venture when it comes to selling the homes. They are currently contracted to purchase the property from Walton.

(I apologize if it seems that subjects are bouncing, but I want to write this article as things developed in this meeting)

At the south of this plan, there are roughly 130 units that will not connect to the rest of the subdivision, except through a footpath. Sturgill stated that they tried to work with the land and not maximize the property. The lots will be 40-95 ft wide. The minimum lot size is 40 ft. The homes will vary in size from 1700-3500 square feet. Mickle could not pin down pricing as the market is variable. In current prices, the homes would start at $350k. Lennar is currently the largest residential builder in the nation, but this group is based out of Nashville. This group is slated to build 900 homes this year and employs about 85 people.

If they are not approved for the SRPUD, this plan will have to be revised. When asked about buffers along the property line, they will do what the city requires, 25 feet. They did not commit to any improvements (trees, etc.) in those buffer areas. When asked if they would consider fewer homes, they said they would.

HOA was the next subject to be broached. Citizens asked how that worked in these new developments. Lennar sets up the HOA so that it is ready as the first residents move in. Lennar manages the HOA until a resident board is built to take over. There are no short term rentals allowed in their development according to the HOA. When asked if they would consider verbiage prohibiting corporations from purchasing homes in the development they said “no”. There will possibly be sub-HOAs in the 55+ section of the development and the separate entrance units. Either way, Lennar will have controlling interest in the HOA until they are ready to turn it over to residents.

Lennar builds 100% of the homes on the property. There are no outside builders. This was a question brought up by a citizen. Another citizen brought up that Lennar has an abysmal rating with consumeraffairs.com. Mickle stated that they can’t please everyone.

At this point I spoke and stated that this seemed to be a sales pitch for people wanting to purchase homes in this development. None of us in this meeting will be allowed to use the pool, the walking trails, or the other “amenities.” There is no need to continue telling us about the subdivision. None of this build benefits the community of White House. At that point it was requested that they discuss traffic.

A traffic study was completed by CESO Inc. Sturgill stated that the area already has traffic issues. The crowd agreed, and then asked why would we want to add to the issue. The traffic study shows that they need left turn lanes on New Hall and Union, a signal at Union and a signal at New Hall. The road will need to be widened at the entrance to the development, but the study was unsure about a turn lane into the property.

Lennar is offering $325K toward traffic improvements if thee property stays R20. This would cover the two left turn lanes and their “half” of the signal at New Hall Rd. If the property is rezoned to SRPUD, they will offer $1.5 mil towards improvements. Lennar themselves would put in the signal at New Hall Rd., but only cover half the cost as the other development behind Heritage High School was supposed to pay for part. Some of that was unclear as to what had been promised to the city in the form of money towards signals. Even though it was brought up that TDOT was not looking at that intersection until 2024, Sturgill said they could get it built with their own engineers. When pressed about the $1.5, Sturgill stated it would only cover half of each signal. There were also no guarantees about when the signals would be completed. When asked if Sturgill had driven that intersection during school hours, he stated “no.” The issue was touched on that turn lanes would be needed for the construction vehicles, but he was unaware of what driving there during peak times was like.

With the SRPUD, improvements would also need to be made to the water and sewer lines. Both currently run to the property. In order to build the SRPUD they will need to bring in 16 inch line, upgrade fire hydrants, and run sewer lines under the creek. This is a significant expense at roughly $3.2 mil. There is no gray water and several lift stations. The development will be on city water and sewer.

Storm water treatment and run off will be contained. The state requires a zero net gain of water run off, so the design will include retention ponds.

The project would start along the center of the property building the homes along what they are calling Burrus Ridge Parkway. As that connects to Swift and Webster, Webster will be resurfaced. A citizen brought up that Webster doesn’t have a road base, and is just gravel. They will have a dedicated construction entrance but Sturgill did not know where that would be as of yet. The homes would be a combination of stick framed and prefab walls. Roughly 60% stick framed. Most homes will be on a slab, but the terrain may require crawl spaces in some areas. The siding will be mostly fiber cement board with the possibility of some brick. They estimate 2.7 people per home. That works out to 2589 people in this development at completion. They do not know how many homes current sewer can handle. If they cannot get at least 850 homes on the property, they will not build. The next step is for Lennar to meet again with the planners for the city of White House.

This article is simply the facts of what took place at this meeting. The next article will be my take on what took place.

As always, if you find this useful, please feel free to send me a cup of coffee via Venmo. @Nicole-Taylor-262