Lakeland officials gave a greenlight for a new townhouse development in the Kathleen area, immediately adjacent to two schools and a major intersection.
The city commission unanimously approved land use and zoning changes on July 21 with a conditional use permit to allow 64 townhomes to be built on roughly 7.5 acres on the northeast corner of the Kathleen Road and Sleepy Hill Road intersection.
The property, currently heavily wooded, is owned by James P. Gills Jr. It’s immediately adjacent to Sleepy Hill Elementary and Middle Schools.
The developer, Air-Sun Florida, LLC., has named the 64-unit development as “The Enclave at Kathleen,” as it presented at a May 20 Planning and Zoning Board meeting. Air-Sun Florida, LLC is managed by Ted Doukas of Naples, according to SunBiz.org. Attorney Tim Campbell, with Clark, Campbell, Lancasters, Workman & Airth, P.A., said the developer plans on building market-rated townhouses that will be individually owned.
Under the city’s guidelines, the townhouses will be a maximum height of two-stories high and must be set back at least 20 feet from the road. Each unit will have a one-car garage, with a driveway designed an additional vehicle on a 10-foot wide driveway.
The townhomes will be placed on the eastern side of the site, according to a plan drafted by Matcon Construction Services, closer to Griffin Cemetery. Two large retention ponds to catch stormwater runoff will be positioned along Kathleen Road, also providing some sort of buffer between the four-lane roadway and residents.
“I’m encouraged the forethought of putting the ponds between actual residents and Kathleen Road offers a great buffer for viewing,” Susan Seitz, a Planning and Zoning Board member said May 20. “I think putting the ponds in that location is a good idea.”
The city has placed a condition that the developer must protect and preserve the existing trees within 30 feet of the west and south boundaries of the property along Kathleen and Sleepy Hill Roads. There is a cost, or fee, for each tree that must be removed with some exception, Campbell said.
The development team’s plans to create a public area which is likely to have a set of mailboxes, additional parking spaces for guests and a “kidlot,” or playground area, according to Campbell.
The developer will need to do a formal traffic analysis when it submits a site plan, Campbell said. Sleepy Hill Road has been identified by the city as one of its Top 10 High Injury Network Corridors with plans to improve traffic safety of the roadway. Of the two adjacent roads, Sleepy Hill Road is overseen by the city and Kathleen Road is managed by Polk County, according to Chuck Barmby, Lakeland’s transportation and development review manager. The two municipalities will have to work together.
Polk County School District provided a letter dated May 6, 2025, saying there was enough capacity at the local schools for children who may move int the future development.
Campbell said there have been attempted to build commercial buildings on this property in the past.
“There was always a market demand at that intersection for commercial type services,” he said. “The city has not been supported of that.”
This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Lakeland approves construction of 64 Kathleen Townhomes off Sleepy Hill Road
Reporting by Sara-Megan Walsh, Lakeland Ledger / The Ledger
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