Time's Up For Formal Feedback on Wilde Lake Village Center Redevelopment

Residents had three weeks in which to give formal feedback on the proposed redevelopment of Wilde Lake Village Center, but the volume of comments hasn’t been as abundant as the village board chairman had hoped.

“We’d like to have the broadest feedback from the community in order to reflect their opinions as we move forward in this process,” chairman Bill Santos said in an interview with Patch. “It’s an important component … in trying to determine whether or not to approve the plan.”

Officials from Kimco Realty Corporation, which owns the village center, have heard from Wilde Lake residents in past meetings in which the developers presented plans for revamping the retail and office site, which is more than 40 years old.

, officially moved the project past the planning stages and into the approval process. Though Kimco has until May 2012 to submit its application, it is expected to do so much sooner, according to Geoff Glazer, Kimco vice president of development for this region.

Community feedback will have some weight in the approval process, Santos said. That process will include the Wilde Lake Community Association’s architectural advisory committee reviewing Kimco’s application and then making a recommendation to the village’s architectural liaison.

While residents can continue to speak out as the process continues, Santos said he would have preferred to have their input during the past few weeks.

That feedback will be compiled and included in the property’s “official record,” he said. In contrast, opinions offered from now on at meetings will be filed within meeting minutes.

The feedback that has come in ranged from favorable to those who are critical of certain aspects of the project, Santos said.

That’s on par with community sentiment seen in the past few years, he added.

“There are people who have different ideas of what they think the ideal village center is,” Santos said. “And in some people minds, Kimco’s plan conforms with that idea they have.  Other people have another vision, and Kimco’s plan may not meet the requirements of that vision.”

Wilde Lake Village Center opened in 1967 and was the city's first village center. The village center’s anchor store, Giant Food, closed in 2006. Many other shops have also closed, leading Kimco and area residents to discuss how to bring businesses and customers in.

Kimco wants the revamped village center to have several buildings that would, in effect, encircle the center’s courtyard and a parking lot. Plans include two new residential buildings with as many as 250 total apartments and parking underneath; a drug store; a bank; a small food store with offices on the second story and renovations to two of the center’s existing retail and office buildings.

The site of the former grocery store and an adjacent building would be torn down, opening up one end of the courtyard and extending one entrance from Twin Rivers Road through the center to Cross Fox Lane.

Getting approval from Wilde Lake’s village architectural liaison is just one part of the process. Kimco also must go before the county’s planning and zoning boards. A  county application could begin later this year, Glazer said.