Water Supply Co-op OK'd on Busy Day for Lakeland Commission

Joining other Polk County municipalities in designing a water supply cooperative was just one of the significant decisions the City Commission made Monday, Commissioner Jim Malless said.

Not a single "nay" vote was recorded despite a heavy agenda during which the commission gave nods to two new types of residences, approved major construction at Lakeland Linder, and hired a consultant to index and analyze downtown parking.

"This is a very important agenda for us as a city today," he said to the four other members present. Commissioners Justin Troller and Phillip Walker were not at the meeting.

During the calm between the failure of the fire fee earlier this month and the weighing of whether to set a higher maximum possible property tax rate at the end of the month, the commission made what Malless called "multigenerational" decisions. The city's current tax rate is $4.6644 per $1,000 of taxable value.

Among them, the commission approved:
Building of 48 "micro-cottages" for residents age 55 and older at 1450 Kennedy Blvd. These 24 duplexes with units of less than 550 square feet each are the first local take on the back-to-basics "tiny house" movement.

Allowing for the transferability of tax incentive benefits for the NOBAY Village developer, Lakeland-based Broadway Real Estate Services. The limited transferability of these benefits will aid the developer in securing secondary financing after the downtown mixed-use project is complete and tenancy stabilized, developer Ron Clark said.