New housing developments don’t just happen. It takes months from the concept stage to the initial groundbreaking, including getting permission from the neighbors, getting the approval of the Planning & Zoning Commission, running the concept through Public Meetings and finally getting the go-ahead from the Clear Lake City Council.
For land developers it’s par-for-the-course. For someone who has never done this before, developing a new housing area is pretty daunting. However, Lakeside Acres Mobile Home Park (Lakeside Acres, LLC) co-owner Brandon Hrubes said he has been asking a lot of questions and learning about the process as he goes along.
Hrubes and his father, Dennis Hrubes, purchased Lakeside Acres, where Dennis resides, in 2017. “We have had success there at our Legacy Park (what they are calling the original Lakeside Acres manufactured home park.) We’ve made a lot of upgrades. We see a lot of demand for that type of community,” Brandon said. “We just had a chance to expand that – not just the manufactured homes, but these ‘villas’ that will be stick-built on site.”
The Hrubes purchased a 25.62 acre plot of land located on the corner of S. 8th St. and 15th Ave. S. with the intention of rezoning the property in order to build 91 stick-built on site villas as well as preparing sites for 45 new manufactured homes. The south end of the property will be used for commercial buildings such as boat storage or pre-approved condo shops for businesses.
Hrubes, who presented his “proposal to rezone” to the Clear Lake City Council on Nov. 20, said, “We get excited about these villas. It’ll be kind of its own little community. We’ll build a big pool, pool house and amenities like pickleball courts and indoor shelters, and a walking path all the way around this property.”
For clarification purposes, Brandon’s idea of a villa is a small home between 800 to 1,300 square feet and the reference designs that were shown to the CouncilI were very modernistic.
“We don’t know if they’ll look exactly like that, but we want something modern. We want the ‘wow’ factor,” he said. Also, unlike the mobile homes of decades past, manufactured homes are built in factories with the same governmental specifications and regulations as stick-built homes.
“The idea is to have, I hate using the word affordable housing, but the small [villa] will be very attractive for the price,” Brandon said. He explained that “affordable” was just a loose term because everyone has different opinions on what is affordable. “Anyway, it should be an eye-catching price because they are not buying the ground.” A person would purchase their manufactured home and then pay a monthly lot fee. For the villas, Brandon said they are considering a type of property lease agreement that a person could take to the bank in order to apply for a loan. The Hrubes plan on maintaining all the community streets, including snow removal. “It’s a unique ownership structure.”
“Phase One (the eastern half) is a little bit of everything to start. And then after that gets filled up, Phase Two (the western half) is just the other half of it,” Brandon said. To alleviate car congestion concerns Brandon said they plan to have three entrances into the development, one on 15th Ave. N. and two on S. 8th St.
A timeline for the project hasn’t been developed yet. Brandon said they still have to go through a number of (rezoning) approvals, and then getting water and sewer out to the development. “But hopefully we can be moving ground in the spring,” he said.
