Collier to consider rezoning proposal for townhouses

More than 10 years have passed since developers purchased 260 acres of what once was the Woodville State Hospital property in Collier for a five-phase housing development called the Villages of Neville Park.

Two phases of the housing plan have been finished, and developers Jack and Jim Cargnoni are anxious to start a third, to be called Parkside Village. It would contain about 140 townhouses on a 24-acre tract now zoned for single-family homes, which would require a zoning change to a planned economic development district.

Fifty acres of the former hospital tract have been donated to the township for a park.

Although some residents are opposed to the townhouses and have launched a petition drive against them, the developers’ attorney, John Linkosky, said no one should be surprised.

“When the master plan was submitted to Collier Township in 2003 or 2004, the area showed townhouses,” he said. “The entire master plan was hashed over for a period of years. Everyone knew what was going on.”

He said the site in question doesn’t lend itself well to single-family homes.

He noted that a developer's agreement requires a traffic light at Neville Park Boulevard and Thoms Run Road for traffic control. Complaints involving previously built villages have involved sewers, and will be resolved, he said.

At several recent planning commission meetings, about 50 residents have turned out to oppose the plan. Because the planning commission, which has an advisory role, twice voted unanimously against recommending approval of the townhouses, the matter has been put before the Collier commissioners.

The commissioners on Wednesday are expected to approve advertising a public hearing and meeting to consider adoption of a zoning ordinance amendment, changing the designation of the 24-acre tract from R-1 to planned economic development

district. The hearing is planned for 5 p.m. July 22, with the meeting starting at 7 p.m. Both sessions will take place in the commissioners' meeting room in the township building on Hilltop Road.

The proposed ordinance would rezone 24 acres owned by Woodville Associates. Included in the acreage is Neville Park Boulevard, Marigold Court and Hilltop Road. A copy of the proposed ordinance may be viewed in the township secretary's office during regular business hours.

The former Woodville State Hospital, which was established in 1852 and closed in 1992, once had 3,200 patients.