Developer Says Bobcat Trail Golf Course Open By Early '98
The Sun-Herald - March 5, 1997
By Greg Williams

New North Port development said to be comparable to Riverwood The developers of Bobcat Trail, a 480-acre, golf course community straddling Toledo Blade Boulevard, promise a community equal to the upscale Riverwood development in Charlotte County, but at North Port prices. "It will have the look and feel of Riverwood, but much, much more affordable," said Jonathan Baltuch, developer KEB Inc.'s Florida representative. More than 440 single-family homes and 110 villas will surround an 18-hole golf course. The development will also incorporate natural wetlands and conservation areas, according to plans. The villas will start at $99,000, and the homes will range from $125,000 to $300,000, Baltuch said.

KEB has contracted with Fero Construction Inc. to build the homes and is negotiating with others, he said. Bobcat Trail could bring with it 250 rental apartments. Baltuch said plans allow for the apartments, but KEB hasn't decided if they will be built. The apartments would be built west of Toledo Blade and could be accompanied by commercial office space. Work on the first phase will begin in June with a grand opening scheduled for February 1998, Baltuch said. The golf course scheduled to be open to the public by next spring. "This project is on a very, very fast track," he said. "I think it's going to be a wonderful, wonderful boon for North Port. It's a great location as a bedroom community for Port Charlotte and Sarasota."

The company's headquarters are in Jonesboro, Ark. This is one of four Florida projects KEB is working on and will be the first they break ground on, Baltuch said. The developer is seeking the city's blessing to become a community development district. It would be the first such district in the city, planner Brett Harrington said. State law allows the districts to sell bonds that are financed by special assessments that Bobcat Trail homeowners will pay. Money from the bonds will pay for water and sewer systems. Once built, the systems will be turned over to the city to maintain, Utilities Director Cindy Mick said. She said the city can handle the development's water needs without further expanding the city's water plant or drawing further from the Peace River plant in DeSoto County. But the developer may have to pay for expansions to the sewer system. "The sewer system is much more limited in its capacity. That doesn't mean we wouldn't be able to service them. It just means they would have to pay for some additional upgrades to our system," she said. Bobcat Trail property owners will elect a five-member board of supervisors to govern the community and maintain its private roads, but Harrington said the city still will have a say about land-use issues. "They have to comply with the Unified land Development Code, the comprehensive plan, zoning -- anything that has to do with land, they have to comply with," he said. Public hearings before the city's Planning and Zoning Advisory Board and the city commission to rezone the development and make it a community development district will be held next.