Local & State Headlines

Lee County leaders discuss utility project

• Sewer and water issues dominate a meeting of Lee County's Board of Commissioners.

Susan McCord

LEESBURG — Building subdivisions in Lee County may get a little easier under a revision to the county's accelerated subdivision process.

The change will allow builders or homeowners to obtain building permits before a new subdivision is connected to county water and sewer systems.

The fast-growing county issued 319 single-family housing permits during 2007, when it also gained 668 new residents and 225 newborns, according to census estimates.

The revision will enable developers Gary Eller and Allan Gleaton to move forward with the first 90 lots of new Hillridge Subdivision, Lee Planning Director Bob Alexander told the commissioners Tuesday at a work session.

The developers are "ready to go and start putting up houses, but the sewer lines aren't in place yet," Alexander said.

The subdivision of quarter-and-half-acre lots is located north of Fussell Road near U.S. Highway 82 West in southwest Lee County.

Commissioner Dennis Roland balked at adding Hillridge's holding pond to the more than 100 that the county already has.

The pond, to be stocked with fish and incorporate a fountain, turns a necessary drainage feature "into an asset," Eller said.

The exception for permits only applies to major subdivisions that have completed their own water and sewer lines but are waiting on the Lee County Utilities Authority to provide the water and sewer connections, County Attorney Jimmy Skipper said.

Hillridge awaits completion of Lee County's US. 82 sewer line project, Authority Director Chris Boswell told the commission.

The project has undergone a few design changes since its inception, Boswell said.

Commissioner Ed Duffy questioned whether the $4 million sewer project would still bring the commercial development as originally intended.

"My main concern," Duffy explained Wednesday, "was to have a guarantee from the Utility Authority that the 300,000 gallons (of sewer service) that we allocated for commercial and industrial growth not be used for high-density residential construction."

The sewer project and the county's elimination of impact fees were one precisely to attract commercial and industrial development, Duffy said.

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