Developer earns praise for reducing apartment units in Serenity at North Port complex

NORTH PORT – North Port city commissioners unanimously approved the master plan for developing Serenity at North Port, a 180-home luxury apartment complex on Toledo Blade Boulevard, praising the company for listening to the public during previous hearings and reducing the size that had been set at 276 units.

In addition to reducing density, the developer – Hamden, Connecticut-based Belfonti Companies – created a small park for the community near the intersection of Lovett and Oakley roads and maximized the distance between the three-story apartment buildings and the surrounding single-family homes.

Vice Mayor Phil Stokes said the presentation was one of the best he’d seen and predicted that the apartment complex will be an asset for the area, adding that the proposal reminded him of Tropia, the Wellen Park apartment complex where he has been living while his new house in Wisteria is finished.

Commissioner Barbara Langdon added, “I think the effect of your design on the surrounding area is that they have a park and not higher density.”

Tuesday’s meeting wasn’t a all positive. The second reading of two growth plan changes needed to build the community on the 18.6 acres previously zoned for single-family development passed on identical 4-1 votes, with Commissioner Debbie McDowell in dissent.

McDowell, who made the motion to approve the master plan, said her vote changed because that plan was in compliance with the city’s land development code as modified by the changes she had opposed.

North Port apartments targeted for young professionals, retirees

Mark Forlenza, managing director of construction and development for Belfonti Companies, told the board that Serenity at North Port was being targeted at a “barbell demographic” of young professionals or retirees who could afford to buy a home but choose to rent because of the added flexibility.

He said that the demographic's income range was projected at $120,000 to $149,000 a year.

That barbell demographic was one reason the developer wanted – and received – an exception to the minimal dwelling living area from 900 square feet to 650 square feet – the likely size of the 84 one-bedroom units.

At previous meetings, attorney Jeff Boone noted that the target market would be medical professionals working either at the planned North Port campus of Sarasota Memorial Hospital or ancillary medical businesses that would follow.

“There’s a growing healthcare community in that area,” he said Tuesday. “That's what we have to look forward to in North Port.”

‘A football field of buffer' from neighboring homes

Forlenza later covered a variety of steps the developer took to alleviate concerns raised in previous meetings, such as reducing the number of units, increasing the percentage of open space to 66.9% and answering a “what’s in it for us” question from the community by providing the small park at the intersection of  Lovett and Oakley roads.

He noted that since both the primary and secondary entrances are on Toledo Blade Boulevard, that should decrease traffic on the neighborhood roads.

Forlenza said the seven buildings were designed to have a large gap between neighboring single-family homes.

For the most part, they succeeded. One is 262 feet from a single-family neighbor and another 267 feet away, but most are more than 400 feet from neighbors.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: North Port commission approves 180-home luxury apartment development