By Steve Plunkett
The site plans for three more houses on Bluewater Cove won approval after town commissioners gave the developer a quick lesson on Gulf Stream neighborliness.
Bluewater Cove LLC and Courchene Development Corp. were presenting plans Dec. 8 for an Anglo-Caribbean home, a West Indies model and one in Georgian style, a first for the new street at the north end of Place Au Soleil.
The Georgian house had a walkway from the street to the front entry, just like the first three homes the developer built.
“Aesthetically it looks like soldiers in formation,” Commissioner Paul Lyons Jr. said.
“What’s the purpose of going all the way to the street?” Commissioner Joan Orthwein asked. “Do we have a lot of houses (in Place Au Soleil) with a walkway going straight to the front door? I think it’s kind of strange.”
The designers said they were aiming for a “classy” and “formal” look in keeping with the traditional Georgian style.
“Our initial idea of connecting the homes through those walkways that went straight to the entry was because people are not going to walk up the driveway and whatever,” landscape architect Louis Vlahos said.
“That’s how everybody else does it here, they go up the driveway and around. It gives it a track-like feeling to have the vertical sidewalk going to the street,” Mayor Scott Morgan said.
The developer quickly acquiesced. “If you don’t want the sidewalk to the street, the sidewalk won’t go to the street. It’s really that simple,” said Cary Glickstein, president of the 14-home development.
The three homes already had new colors and shutters because of a desire by the Architectural Review and Planning Board to avoid a cookie-cutter appearance.
The three additional homes are all one-story and will join three that are finished — or nearly so — and are marketed for $4.875 million apiece.
Glickstein said he expects to build several two-story residences on the street.
“I know with a very high probability that there will be at least four of the 14 that are two-story. That number may be higher, but I can say with some conviction that there will be at least four,” he said.
One is among the first three that were built. The others will be at the end of the street.
“It wouldn’t surprise me if there are probably six homes that are two-story by the time the subdivision is completed,” Glickstein said. “The reason I say that is I know the two homes on the Intracoastal will be two-story. The home to the west of the north Intracoastal lot will be two-story because there are views down the Intracoastal, and I think the lot next to that may also capture some of that.”
But Glickstein said home buyers prefer one story when that’s available.
“The way that this development was site planned was to encourage single-story development. The lots are wider than they are deep, which lends itself to single-story homes, which … I think is more honorific of what exists in Gulf Stream.”
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