The council's 4 to 1 midnight vote paves the way for Harry Lerner's Westshore Development Group of Tampa, FL to start building 300 apartment units and 200 single-family homes within 120 days. Lerner projects the first residents could move in by 2002.

Two apartment communities housing 600 units; 500 single-family residences in five neighborhoods; and a 14-acre recreational park are planned.

While the residential component gets under way, the developer will be applying to the Florida Department of Community Affairs for a similar go-ahead on the 80-acre commercial and retail aspect of the project. The commercial end of the project needs the state's blessing, particularly since the former developer, Jaymark Builders, paid a $14,000 fine for allegedly filling wetlands and grading the side of a 10-acre lake without a state permit. Jaymark did not admit to the violations but paid the fine anyway. Westshore inherited the project at that juncture in 1999.